Day 30

So, I made 29 out of 30 days for the month, which is pretty damn good, I’d say. I could go back and bang something out for the day I missed, but it’s just not worth it to me. Today’s prompt was to write a letting go poem, and I thought about one of the most important periods of my life, when I left the church I’d been raised in and let go of the beliefs I’d centered my entire life around. That’s a lot to encompass in a single poem, so this doesn’t even try. It shorthands a bit of the details, but I think the images are evocative enough to get a sense of what I’m talking about.

Left Home

Not parents, but church
(and thus parents for there
is no family without church
for them), the eternal, bliss
of the Lotos-Eater, dream
of the concussed. Gave up
on eternity, on marital bliss,
on miracled eyes, vegan lions,
circumnavigating the universe.
Discovered love was conditional,
that even God has limits, that I
did too. That I could disagree
and be content with less than.
That I didn’t need to.