prompt 13 hour 13

just walking

 

my body is soft –

has always preferred reading to running

writing to nearly anything else

but walking calls me

frequently to many spaces where

rivers run faster than I ever could on bended knee

in worship to the body that sustains me

and the body that built a fortress of fat around me

to protect me before I could protect myself.

 

If I wanted to move, I could.

I was just trained to be still –

straining muscles snapping with the longing to run

with muscles so taut as to hum

against the silence of my body.

 

I wanted so desperately to be a dancer –

when I didn’t want to run away –

loving that movement of the body

I secretly wished away.

 

These days I walk.

I walk to the places that call me

to listen to rivers

running faster that I ever could –

dancing over stones

in songs of love to my still feet

still wishing to do more

than just walking.

 

© r. l. elke