In Your Anxiety...Remember

In Your Anxiety...Remember

for my student Summer W.

In your anxiety you still
have your eight
fingers and your two thumbs in
your anxiety you still have

to open them remember
they are like the wings
they are remember when
you played

them against the light
and they made shades
and became
in flight in that light

a type of bird right
at the pause of your wrists
bird and bird they moved
you and you were

moved.  And the wall
and the spotlight was enough
in that moment and in that
the moment was
enough.  You played

and made yourself
laugh: a rabbit a panting dog
a bird.  And lately:
thumb to thumb

the C'd letter the deaf
recognize so well as one
of their own in right
and left hand they come together

and strike up
a conversation in love.
If the fist of your heart
is rigid, undo your digits

and put them right
hand first over your tight
and throbbing losses.  And with
what you have of your left palm press

it against the strumming
knuckles
lay them flat against their kin
and let them become

your stethoscope
let them pump your wondrous
shadow with trickles
of light let the fire

that flairs and dies and flairs
and dies only subside just enough
to calm you and to speak to you
in tongues

in your tongue
as though you were your own
mother and your own baby
calming one to one in the storm