here’s to not settling

and here’s to not settling

here’s to fighting it to the bitter end
in big and small ways
unsung routines and inner hymns
that keep us warm at night
and nimble in dark corners

here’s to picking battles 
polishing the diamond and 
staying true 
wild 
and devoted
to this vast adventure

the hurtling dance
of grace
that in a second
goes up in flames,
quick as a paper fire

rains back down
in shooting star tails
when our weeping 
calls the heavens loud enough to notice
a story poised ready 
for luck to come back knocking

here’s to the tender fierceness of
i still choose this

ears cocked for the
lukewarm in-betweens
that dull the dream,
let doubt creepy-crawl up
our great towers of courage
built in months of sweat and fire

here’s to the bittersweet harvest we all came here for

the roses in the wreckage
that grow nowhere else

picked trembling in the rubble
to soothe the heart’s growing pains

and here’s to all the times we will never hear
you touched me
and it made a difference
it made a difference

it made a difference.

Photo by Jeffrey Packard