melissaahowells - That Once Respite Cave

the glommy heat has me
in its saran wrap grasp
I'm glued into its tar paper mitts
while the thick air tries to
extinguish my breath

I'd have perished long ago
there wouldn't be any early ancestors
to populate and conquer the world,
no moving out of the great rift valley
I'd have remained stuck in my cave
wanting to be cool

and speaking of caves
and crawling out of one
isn't that what 2020 was like for me
for so many of us...realizing how
we couldn't stay comfortable
because the world had been transformed
into a pit of uncertainty overnight
and the only way we would've survived it all
was to come out of our individual caves of
despair and aloneness
to reach out

I made friends with so many outside my own small sphere
and then there was you
and me talking to you from the other side of midnight
and you looking into my cave lit by the wavering light
of my computer

so many others may have repeated this action
across the globe
connecting through computer cables, nerve synapses
and light-speed thoughts

I miss you that way
and how you were so novel and unexpected
like a gift one would give to oneself if you might have
the choice of anything

we are now on the other side of this
and the heat in my head and mind and heart
is now triplicated by the stagnating outside
such synergy rarely happens

my inner fire continues to burn blue-flamed
but I feel your flame is altered
dying out to an ember
and there's little I can do

part of me knows
you've always burned brightly
and shone on everyone around you
your light is too large to focus in one spot
or on one person

my heart leaps and sinks
like the Lusitania
not the Titanic
each time I see you or hear your voice
yet I know
there will be no safe port
to reach in my ocean

I
like my ancestor so long ago
now curse the familiar coolness
of that once respite cave.

DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE, WILL COME BACK FOR EDITS /CLARIFICATION LATER
LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM 7/27/2022 7:01PM PST
TIME AND DATE STAMPED AND ALSO FOR THIS POET/WRITER
MELISSA A. HOWELLS AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGALLY COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED SITE TITLE:
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD