A Fine Dance
- Corey Ponder
- Nov 7, 2023
- 1 min read
How are you?
I'm fine.
If you took me at my word.
That's enough in a word
To bide time
Until I sense
That won't fly.
How are you?
Good...overall.
The pause.
A cradle nursing all
Within that 'overall'
Left unsaid.
Rock it gently
And put the unsaid to bed.
Say, how are you?
Well, considering.
Meaning I am used to
Satiating thirst
With half full glasses
And quelling hunger
With empty baskets.
Asked again, how are you?
Why do you ask?
I grasp that
Maybe you see
What I thought invisible
To all but me.
How unnerving
To be seen
In the places I'm hiding.
Or maybe it's exactly
What I need.
To be seen clearly
Through opacity.
On the other side
Of window dressing lies
Vulnerability.
How am I?
I guess I need you.
No, I know I do.
I need you.
I need you to hear
How I'm doing.
I need you to hear
What you could see
all along.
I said, I'm here.
But now that I'm here
You're somewhere over there.
Pushed beyond
Where my cries
Can find you.
This is why
I stick with 'fine'.
And this is why
This dance continues.