Almanac for the Homesick

Moon, my mama is across the ocean

Moon, I am the one across the ocean

Moon, my ribs opened up and now my heart,

My heart is in the ocean too

Moon, climb through the kitchen window,

Curl up in my phantom sheets and stroke my hair

The exact way my mama does it?

Moon, you have something I need:

Teach me how to sit still

between being and becoming.

How do I master the art of falling

And rising without expectations

Even when I don't feel like it

But because I simply must?

Please tell the stars I'm not lost,

Just a little late.

There is a daughter,

There is a pencil,

And it's enough

to burrow my feet in the earth.

Please tell the stars I'm not rude,

I am homesick,

I want to rise higher and higher

and without falling

but I can't let go.

Tell the night I'm still mending myself—

sewing my pieces into a mismatched quilt;

I'm not vanished,

just gathering light

out of gentler days,

learning how to shine like you

how to shine across the oceans

how to shine on my mama and my heart

that's in the ocean

How to shine without burning

everything around me.