Comfort - Not What You Might Think

Comfort is a knock on the head

and not a cuddle. It’s someone caring

enough to punch you on the shoulder

and remind you that you’re

talking shit and people are

starting to laugh at you.

Comfort is tears on a pillow just

before you realize that you

messed up big time but caught it. Just as

your life/career/relationship was about

to careen over the edge into a flaming ball

of recriminations that you couldn’t undo.

Comfort is decidedly not a large bank

account, a diversified portfolio or

two kids and a Porsche in the garage.

It’s not summers in the Hamptons,

winters at St. Moritz or a tryst with

your boss’s wife and a temp from HR.

Though I suppose that comes close.

Comfort is a series of brief moments

when happiness peers around the corner

smiling and lets you know you’re getting warmer.

It’s pain that lasts one-fourth the time that joy does,

when you’re reading a book to a child, running

in place with a heart that’s strong or so

close to your lover that you can’t tell

yourselves apart.

It’s the proverbial calm before the storm

that doesn’t arrive; the ache that subsides

quickly on its own, a dream that for once comes

true and you get to watch it before falling asleep.

It’s your heartbeat right after a bone-jarring

accident that doesn’t stop and you realize

that everything is going to be alright.