maturity

Maturity is receding waters
walking more easily
feeling more of your own weight
until
as the last drops slide down the drain
it all
suddenly

crashes

over you again.

into joy and laughter

A single thread, a column
rising strong, then breaking
into joy and laughter -
dancing like the river, the bees,
the leaves on the breeze, twirling sufis -
they rise solemn
until they, too, break
into joy and laughter.

Rise above, little darling,
until your broken joy and laughter
fills the room.
Rise, until each space you fill
can no longer contain you.
Grasp onto the beating hearts in the sky
and cry
for fictitious characters,
the people you've always known.
Reach out for every incomplete revelation
and burn
until the scent fills every nostril
and you are one with the vanishing cloud
. . .
and the ashes all fall away
into dots
that children will connect
with their favorite colored crayons
and they, too, will rise, aflame
and then break
into tears
and joy
and laughter.