Tending Bonds

Tenderness 

is tinder

for a bondfire

of healing what’s been 

bruised, wounded

and neglected, 

reeling still

through terrain

where our lives

have often wandered. 

These lives

that yearn

to flower

under rainfall 

grow taller 

and more 

spacious—

that ache 

with thirst

for bond-fires

that soothe

and nourish 

by burning walls

no longer needed

so we might 

awaken

at every imagined

border

to cross 

all the way

over

into realms

of new arrival,

times that gleam

stone-green 

brightly sheen

with thriving.