Renee Writes

I’m no scientist.
I cannot recite the elemental chart,
nor explain the states of matter.

I do know that things change in
magical ways.
I think maybe science and religion
are both the study of magic.
They just insist on calling it by
different names.

I don’t think water and fire
can co-exist in a shared space.
I don’t think an air-sucking vacuum
and a summer breeze can help but
cancel each other out.
I can’t picture the deepest shadow
and a sunbeam somehow overlapping.

And yet, I find the most unlikely pairings
in my heart.
Today I look inside and see Peace,
while Pain still sits there in the center.
I think they are becoming friends.

Peace says to Pain,
“Don’t be afraid of me. Come,
have a cup of tea.
I won’t try to erase you.
I know you have a place here too.”

Pain is untrusting. It knows
I have wanted it gone,
have counted the days waiting for it
to fade away.

Now Peace is teaching me
the physics of the human heart,
the way things that should repulse each other,
like pole-aligned magnets,
can turn and pull together instead.
It’s an odd and beautiful magic that
I have no delusion of ever understanding.