DavidFriedland

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52169038

The world is full of naming sins.
It's chaos, I declare.
If cats were put in charge of words,
we'd straighten things out there.

Blue things would all be blue things.
Cat things would all be cats.
And hot dogs would be called
"Not Dogs"—

which ultimately settles that. 🐾

A man steadies a ladder
for someone he barely knows.

His hands grip cold metal.
Above him, a stranger climbs.

For a moment
his palms become solid ground.

—

A mother stands in a doorway at midnight
waiting for headlights that haven’t turned the corner yet.

She says nothing.
But the porch light stays on.

A child climbs through the darkness
because she is holding the ladder of hope.

—

A teacher stays after the bell
with the one kid who thinks he’s already failed.

The classroom is empty.
Papers everywhere.

“Try it again,” she says quietly.

And somewhere inside that boy
a rung appears
where there was only air.

—

A friend answers the phone
on the third night of silence.

Nothing wise is said.

Just breathing,
and the soft agreement
to stay on the line.

Sometimes the ladder
is just a voice
refusing to hang up.

—

A nurse presses a hand
against the trembling shoulder
of a man who has just heard the word "terminal".

She cannot change the sky above him.

But she stands there anyway
holding the frame of the moment
so he doesn’t fall all at once.

—

A father walks beside a bicycle
one hand on the seat.

“Don’t worry,” he says.

The child pedals.

The father lets go
two seconds earlier
than the child will ever know.

Still—
for years that invisible hand
remains in the wind behind them.

—

A stranger picks up a dropped bag of groceries.
An old man waves someone ahead in traffic.
A woman smiles at the cashier
who has been invisible all day.

Small things.

Thin aluminum rungs
between the ground
and the courage to keep climbing.

—

Somewhere tonight
someone is standing quietly below you
without applause
without recognition
without even your name.

Hands steady.
Feet planted.

Holding the ladder
while you reach
for whatever piece of sky
you believe is yours.

The world is full of naming sins.
It's chaos, I declare.
If cats were put in charge of words,
we'd straighten things out there.

Blue things would all be blue things.
Cat things would all be cats.
And hot dogs would be called
"Not Dogs"—

which ultimately settles that. 🐾

cross-posted @ 145 UpVotes: https://lemmy.world/post/52129177

"If I fits," he hummed with grace,
And pressed his paws into our space.
We creaked, we bowed, our corners split

He did not care. He fits. He sits.

Now we are throne and bed and fort,
A corrugated royal court.

Our shipping days are long since quits-
We serve the one who fits and sits.

"If I fits," he hummed with grace,
And pressed his paws into our space.
We creaked, we bowed, our corners split

He did not care. He fits. He sits.

Now we are throne and bed and fort,
A corrugated royal court.

Our shipping days are long since quits-
We serve the one who fits and sits.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52099512

The best things don’t arrive at the door because you clicked “buy now.”

They arrive because, while you were searching somewhere else,

they had already, on quiet paws,

found you.

The best things don’t arrive at the door because you clicked “buy now.”

They arrive because, while you were searching somewhere else,

they had already, on quiet paws,

found you.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52079299

White as winter, soft as snow,
One green, one blue with their own glow.
You think you chose me long ago...
But you and I, yeah we both know.

White as winter, soft as snow,
One green, one blue with their own glow.
You think you chose me long ago...
But you and I, yeah we both know.