On Theodora's list
There are pleasant valleys
best walked on sunny days
with burbling brooks that
make their their way
through the soft earth
All is well, they reassure you
all is well! proceed! proceed!
they say
as they open up
to verdant hills
with lazy, meandering paths
blue, yellow and pink wildflowers
bowing as you softly tread past
There are pleasant valleys
best walked on sunny days
and there are other valleys
with brown and black moldy rocks
with sharp pebbles
and slow brackish water
that you'd instantly hate
spitting and spluttering
when it touches your tongue
even if you were dying of thirst
they mark your legs
they mark your feet
as you walk their pathless gravel
and when they open up?
dust
gray dust
gray sand
and more dust
more dust
all the way to the horizon
and beyond the horizon
you know that.
The valley had spoken
of your future
its wordless sounds
promising you
reassuring you
reminding you
of the gravel
of the dust
and of the sand
yet
even as your eyes recognize
these promises
recognize these reminders
as your lungs burn
when they experience them
your feet nothing more than mangled tissue
when they walk them
as they crack and bleed and crack again
and again
and again
and again
As you live
through these eternal promises...
are not all things good
when you exist on Theodora's list?
Number one.
With God.