on my Parade

I wake long before dawn, toss and turn watching messages come in from other time zones. Some are sweet, some are devastating, and I lie awake wondering at how life is. In this bubble at the edge of civilization, I imagine myself beyond reach, but I fall asleep again and dream heart-wrenching dreams of love and loss until an alarm shakes me out of it. In the morning light, I feel soft, vulnerable, without my suit of armor, this coffee strengthens me, these words build me but at the end of the day we are nothing more than soft flesh easily bruised. I wonder how we can ever dare to love when we know the risk. Turn to words instead, let them move me, let them build me. It meant something different once but now I put my faith in words instead:

(not like a corral: like a wave)