Text and Artwork by Jennifer Stefanek

I look up
To find that my world is not
As small as it can seem right now
When I’m feeling cagey
In these four same walls

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But I can’t help but to wish
To be carried along
With the rolling clouds
As they tumble through cerulean skies
Envious of their pure, unencumbered
Birds-eye view of the passing world below

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Following along the earth’s curve
Delivering me to foreign lands
Where I will feel the long grasses
Tickle my ankles
Instead of the tight shackles
Of daily tallies and stay home orders
Which tether me to the
Same safe spot

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In the stillness of daybreak
I find glimpses of freedom
As I walk towards the pink sun’s rising
Reminiscent of sun-burnt cheeks
Acquired while sipping icy cocktails
Lounging on hot white sands
Memories of a different time
A different me

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And as a brush of Winter’s air
Whips across open fields
Covered in heavy white blankets
Icy breaths on my bare face
Invigorating my skin
With a renewed awareness
Of the hot humanity
Coursing through my blue veins

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Through the bleakness
I can still spot hints of unrelenting life
A shock of green grass
Peeking through stark snow
Or the last of the blood-red berries
Clinging to otherwise naked gray trees
Nourishment for little
Furry and feathered souls
Whose lives go on
Unaware

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The glowing yellow moon’s light
Still smiles brightly
Through the shade’s cracks
Illuminating my sleeping face
Awakening me
From dreams of rolling seas
That calm my buried fears
And carry me through the long nights
To safety

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And tiny distant stars dot the dark sky
Sparkling coordinates
Which map a path
To skip across the galaxy
Uniting me with the people
I long to wrap my arms around
And sit in community with
To laugh and sing
And kiss their faces, unmasked

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I look beyond
The violet horizon
Of these shortest days
Like staring deep into the steely eyes
Of those who stare back in awe
At the vibrant colors
That bookmark the days
The ticking of time that marches on
Despite it all
Resolute

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I tilt my face to the openness above
And feel the frozen tears of ancestors
Falling from the heavens
As snowflakes
Melting down my cheeks
Mingling with my own tears
Flowing over senseless loss and uncertainty
Until the sadness is cleansed
Into a river of hope

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And I know somewhere
Half a world away
A person that speaks
A language I don’t understand
Is stepping outside and
Exhaling into the same vast sky as me
And their breath is not poison
It is life

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So, I continue to look up
At the ever-changing sky
To be reminded that
Just like a blizzard gives way to
A rushing Spring waterfall
This is temporary
There is still so much beauty
To be found and look forward to
In this weary, waiting world