No Matter The Wreckage Poems By Sarah Kay 11/30/2022

 

I finished this chapbook recently and one poem made me think of sacred communication. 

Postcards 

“ I had already fallen in love with 

 Far too many postage stamps,

When you appeared on my doorstep,

Wearing nothing but a postcard promise. 

No. Appear is the wrong words.

Is there a word for sucker-punching 

Someone in the heart? 

Is there a word for when you are sitting

At the bottom of a roller coaster,

And you realize the climb is coming,

That you know what the climb means,

That you can already feel the flip in your

Stomach from the fall, before you have 

Even moved- is there a word for that?

There should be.

You can only fit so many words in a postcard.

Only so many in a phone call.

Only so many into space, before you forget

That words are sometimes used for things

Other than filling emptiness.

It is hard to build a body out of words.

I have tried. We have both tried.

Instead of laying your head on my chest,

I tell you about the boy who lives downstairs,

Who stays up all night playing his drum set.

The neighbors have complained:

They have busy days tomorrow.

But he keeps on thumping through the night,

Convinced, I think, that practice makes perfect.

Instead of holding my hand, you tell me about

The sandwich you made for lunch, the way the

Pickles fit so perfectly against the lettuce.” 

I think this is a good representation of sacred communication and even sacred journeys people experience in their day to day life, how small things can be made extraordinary.