I Have Known Hunger

I have known hunger, having nothing and no one. I have cried in the dankest depths of being - only to be heard by that which I cannot see, yet feel. I have been lifted to heights beyond this universe by most holy angels and dragged beneath the silt of this Earth by death and demons. My soul has been ripped wide open, left bleeding by the pasture, vultures and Valkyries above me, waiting for my last breath - and yet I rose, wounded, barely alive, clutching my heart like a newborn soul safe within the lines in my palms, tasting upon my lips, charred and chapped by the sun, my blood, so bitter and sweet. Oh my dear soul, yes, I have known hunger. I have seen Jesus cry in a last goodbye to those that judged him, unruly. I was there when God spoke, and animals roamed freely, no human hand to deter their treks, no harm, no hate. I heard Lilith shriek, banshee-like and surreal, into the great cosmos from whence she came, when Adam took Eve and left her in the void. I was there when Lincoln went down and sat in horror as doctors did not have enough sense to save his life and watched fireworks fly from his body lying still as he took his rightful place in the heavens. I saw the devil as angel, so beautiful he was, he and Michael stood sentinel as brothers in arms until the wars began, and egos clashed and like humans, the angels fought and made the sky shed tears for the plight of humankind. I sat by Martin as he cried in jail, alone, confused, questioning God, and I placed one hand upon his shoulder and said, "Yes, but this is your purpose." I traveled this place, many worlds, realities within unreality, dimensions upon dimensions, in and out of mazes of lives and lovers lost and found again. I have been the rich man kicking the poor to the dirt and the poor man tasting dust upon his tongue. I have been the birthed and the birthing, traveling wombs of the blessed and the cursed, and have been held in love, equally in hate, the bastard child of a thousand lifetimes. I have come to know my own soul and in this knowing, I have come to know yours for we are all born of the same breath. I have met you as I have met myself in five thousand lives before this one. Still, I struggle, for this is the human plight. Yet I love and breathe and keep walking forward, knowing that now, is simply a time to witness. Somewhere, elsewhere, in this great expanse, I shall meet you again - for my soul is made of maps lined upon maps, drawn without my foresight, paths filled with light and dark, such as these words, falling lightly from my fingertips, to you, dear soul, stay with me please on this journey and do not fear the unknown. Bellow your beautiful self to the sky for humankind needs your heart, open, wide, accepting of nothing but yourself. © photo & words Susan Marie