Time to gather myself in
from all the places
I’ve flung myself
in recent days—
appointments,
computer screens,
living rooms,
kitchens,
restaurants,
coffee shops
and donation boxes
of all varieties—
where I happily
and mindlessly
dropped off my energy
because I had some.
I should have
gotten a receipt,
but I was too busy
having fun
being busy
having fun.
So now I feel
see-through thin,
boundary-blurred,
half-here,
partialized.
In my imagination
I see the motion-trails
of all my ghost-images
like litter on a path
from the gauzy self
I am now
to the parts of my essence
still sitting like lost souls
in coffee shops,
living rooms,
computer screens—
all the places
I got up and left
to go to the next thing
without gathering myself in.
So I’m lying here now
reeling my ghost-selves
in to reoccupy my body,
redrawing my boundaries,
pulling myself—
all my selves—
back together,
drawing them in
as if they were on
an invisible thread…
reeling them in
deep down
slowly and gently
so they don’t get
the opposite
of the bends…
what is that,
the “straighten ups?”
Ann Keiffer
April, 2024
Image: Pinterest, edited by Ann Keiffer
