With grace, wisdom, patience

even when they are stubborn and

unyielding, they surrender

so patiently, becoming

something we will never be.

 

With loyalty, understanding, and

the ability to hear pain, smell truth,

they sense things we will never know

or read because we are too foolish,

too stuck in our heads.

 

In their eyes, worlds—stars, oceans, skies,

all swirled together–inviting you to

enter so you can find everything

you need to do, to know, to feel,

before you can be whole.

 

Feel their strength, so contained and deliberate,

but so wild and raw, compelling you to

close your eyes and watch them run,

flinging bolts of life every direction,

exchanging ecstatic cries with earth and sky.

 

Standing next to them, absorbing their presence

is a gift, an opportunity to live and

change, right there in that moment,

with pieces of it, electric ribbons, spinning

in and around you, for days.