This is Life: A Poem

This life as it is.
Contracting and expanding
Sucking in air
Sinking into the earth
The sweet embrace of
This life. As it is.
I don’t need to be

What you want me to be.
An expectation you desire
And prefer.
Here I am, naked and vulnerable
Take me as I am.
This life. As it is.

Here the heart
On the hearth
Strong yet fragile
Like a spider’s web
Languaging a new
Vocabulary
Standing still
And smart
And alive

And cunning

Like a panther
Hidden behind a bush
Waiting for its next meal
Sprinting to the finish
Line with no end in sight

Life is like the heart that
Keeps the life pumping
The life pumping the heart
The heart that is this life
With no end in sight
This life. As it is.