All I Want

Hello Dear Ones! Today’s draft also came out of the workshop in Taos. The prompt was “All I want,” and I was surprised by what I wrote, so I decided to see if it could be a poem.

All I want is something pleasing for every sense:

Sunlight on a yellow flower for my eyes,

cicadas at dusk for my ears,

lavender or lilac in wet Spring earth for my nose,

dark chocolate or black coffee for my tongue, 

the pulse at my beloved’s wrist for my hands. 

All I want is for every human to feel the peace I feel

when I listen to my beloved’s heart in the barrel of his ribcage. 

All I want is for every hand to find another hand –

soft touch, soft eyes, soft voice:

Here we are. Together again.

I want enough safety to pause 

on the third step down from the front door 

long enough to tell what kind of bird it was

that called out when I walked outside.

All I want is to see the Madonna 

in a mother carrying her sleeping child

through the TSA line.

To leave behind a sense of calm 

In every room I ever occupied.