together

do i call them

companions or guides or friends

they do not walk beside me for

i am not only walking

i am swimming I am rolling I am falling

down or up and through or out and

i am writhing or is it slithering or

is it the universe cascading around me like

some eternal fall of water

washing existence away and away

and regardless, with me is something like sadness or

melancholy or ennui, something that resounds

like Quasimodo’s bells or perches on my soul

like the feel of deserved injustice,

a worn and sodden cloak against

a frozen rain, and too

is something like joy or wonder or hope

something that embraces like the warmth

of stumbled upon sunlight or dawns

like the realization of a long held desire

an expansive spread of wings on

an ascendant draft, together

they work my body and will and heart and surrender

and my last breath in concert

to move beautifully within the precious storm