By Ashley Gonzalez
Butterfly Hearts, Sisters of Fits and Starts, lend me your wings, those feathery things that make even shakiest voices sing. King of Brothers, lend me your crystal cutters, shining prisms of Light over lover’s skin. No sin in that, in acts full of Giving Back, contract relax, generous pacts creating habitats of warm curiosity, where people aren’t trophies to be collected, but landscapes to be explored with reciprocity, with gentle feet and measured velocity. Make your intentions known, but wait for treasures to be shown. Enter with invitation sown of patience overgrown, with gratitude of visitor in someone else’s home.
Madre of desire unopposed, help me find Balance between Open door and Closed. Some risks are worth taking, even if trajectory we’re directing doesn’t fit what we’re expecting. As long as Arc bends towards connecting, respecting, intersecting. Reflecting moments sharp with reality, blurred with sensuality, wild hopes of what will be, carefree surrender to synchronicity, deepest emotions of the Sea washing over you and me. And if I dare speak in terms of We, I pray it’s a chance worth taking, not in dreams but actuality, where curious inquiries feel like kisses under wizened trees, skin buzzing like bumblebees, overcome with subtlety of intimacy inching towards itself with clumsy intricacy. But when Fear takes over I let slip a plea. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me. Free to flee, but please don’t leave. Skin burning like killer bees, I try to smile, but instead I weep, scars too deep, internal battles too steep. I pretend to be asleep as tears seep and mind leaps, counting chasing wild sheep. One two three, one two three, one two We, one two
We.
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Ashley Gonzalez
Ashley teaches English to immigrants in Columbus, Ohio. More than an English teacher, she sees language and stories as a way to build compassion for the human inside everyone. Life has taught her that creativity is a door to the spiritual self, and in the simplest and truest sense, she writes to remember herself back home.