Poetry Month 2023 Post #1: Thread

It’s national poetry month. I am posting a poem a day for the month of April. Post #1: Thread. A poem I wrote a few days ago.

The contents of the thread
I am hanging by
are important to my survival.
How strong is it?
Is the fiber able to endure the strain? the stress?
How frayed is it? How long can it hold on?
Is it a thread or a string, a rope, a cord, a conduit, a cable?
This umbilical cord that tethers me to life
comes from somewhere.
It’s connected to someone,
something, some body.
Is it wrapped around my neck?
Is it twisted, knotted, kinked?
Do I hold on, do I trace it back to source?
The pulsing tissues, the blood soaked fibers, the long, supple tentacle of my vitality, my aliveness–keeping me sourced with oxygen, plasma, iron, nutrition–can you help me do more than survive?
Can you pull me out of the cold caverns of my despair, my fear, my lonely soul?
Can we wake me up from the stupor of my trauma, my exaggerated startle response, my vigilance, my resignation, my lethargic panic?
The plumb-line needs flushing, a strong cleansing current of IV fluids–
salted, titrated for revival, not just survival,
but for song, for singing with a cosmos
creative, supple, strong.