FROM THE
PHILLY PIGEON: ESSENTIAL MAGIC WORKSHOP
New Terrain
After the Divorce
Susan Keller
Susan Keller
It’s quieter now
for Marie and all of us coping with trauma
We take our isolation with us
You do not need a philosophical reason to be happy. It is not a categorical imperative, or a biological one.
Venture from the curb onto a lunar landscape buffered by measured space Bound from crater to crater struggle to steady each footfall careful not to cross one another’s path We gauge steps, not progress Still we crave direction reasons to leave and return refreshed Until home base shifts fails to provide comfort as everything familiar slips below the horizon We lope across the stark surface find no solace in store shelves no strength in miles and miles of pavement Exhaust from a lone car clouds and threatens its engine backfires piercing the street’s searing solitude
Justification through faith is superfluous. You have. You are. You will— the will being a supernatural trick that works best when unattended. The current craze for mindfulness is a mistake. Mindlessness is not, out of hand, heedlessness, or even hedonism. We know how to heed, bob and weave, as we move like moths to the flames of our desire and tend to simple survival. Life is raw and scrapes.
Jolted into breathing we each bend our knees feel the bounce of our moon shoes absorb the spring and launch our next step.
Happiness is owed and owned. Take it.
“The Ground Beneath My Feet” by Katie Garth
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