- A short walk today until my knees
said enough. It’s too much pressure
and I’d much rather sleep.
My feet found all the bumps,
my body’s not aligned.
How I long to be fluid
2. as the dancers are fluid
bending deep in their knees
hips and backs aligned,
gravity distributed, pressure
turned sinuous, bumps
smoothed out. I could easily sleep.
3. I could lose myself in sleep
drift down the flowing fluid
glide over all the bumps
forget about my knees,
eliminate all pressure
who needs to be aligned?
4. The cat curled in the couch is aligned,
lost in the furry softness of sleep.
Surrendering to the pressure
of gravity with a body so fluid
it’s as if her skeleton has melted. No knees
or angles and certainly no bumps.
5. But I am full of angles and bumps
which I struggle to align
especially my aching knees
which I’d like to put to sleep
until they learn to be more fluid,
and by softening, yield to pressure.
6. The world seems full of danger, pressure,
angles, slaps, and ill-intended bumps.
The option to be centered, fluid,
grounded and aligned
seems dormant in the roots, asleep
until we get up off our grinding knees.
(envoi) Stand up and rub our arching knees
make the pressure fluid, align with the bumps,
wake up and shake off sleep.