Wake Like a Cave

I don't wake up

feeling like I am

caving in

anymore

Like my heart is pulling

to the center

and couldn't

be lifted with the rest

of my body

standing up from

my bed, I don't wake

knowing a part of me

is hiding in the deepest

cave of myself, searching for

some treasure I already had 

but couldn't use

or find

I think my heart is walking out now

Not all the way, it's still

timid, and sensitive to light,

But it is not retreating

or falling back to the lava core

It has stood in the heat of

that center for long enough

And started to inch forward, and

Me with it

I wake heavy still, but

don't we all? Our bodies

the burden and the gift,

our centers, the beating rivers

of heat and longing, 

coursing through,

pulsing forward into the life of day.

Christie Flemming