The Abstract Certainty

The Abstract Certainty

She dealt in figures corporal

Like they were there

Like they could be seen

Like there was no hiding

Like you might paint a body

Like a body

That looks just like

A beautiful

Certainty

That you didn’t have to

Run from or divide a country

Into two parts for -

As though it was whole

And armoured

Brave

And human.

And the other dealt in head trips

In dreams made of shapes

In puzzles pieces

That didn’t have to match

In the sparks of

Oddity and zany

Invention.

Like the art for

Detectives

Searching

In the mystery

Of deviations.

She spoke in blacks and whites

Holding fast to convictions

Speaking plain

With a blunt knifed tongue

Making sure not to crack

Making sure not to give away

too much of a burden

too much of the pain

And the other spoke

In whispers and

Wondering

Through longings and

The wistful wind

And the deep ocean

Making sure of the heart

But knowing sure

Was open for

New adventures.

But she was the other

On the inside after all

She was broken fragments

She was many swirling

Bright dreams in

A padded case

Put out of the way

She was memories

She was sadness and joy

She was there with a box

Shut up for fear it might

Leak the great flood

Of a lost love

With a soft trigger

To breaking the surface skin

like a lady in a painting

You might paint just like a lady

Where all those pieces

Released might break

All the knowing

Into too much unknowing

And too much sorrow.

But she was both after all.

Like we all are.