across the street this morning,

a stranger

blew a kiss

to his wife,

standing in the doorway of their home, and the whole world cracked open.

and just like that,

the light seemed brighter,

and i wonder if i had known that

your words

would settle on my skin

like doves,

gentle

and an offering of love,

or perhaps just peace,

i am not entirely sure yet.

time will tell,

i think.

but, they sit there

quietly

on my limbs, and

when it is dark

i count them

one by one,

and their weight feels good,

like the hands of a man.

and i can breathe again,

for the first time in a long time,

and i inhale myself

through the eyes of another,

and i find myself slowly leaving the back room of my heart,

tiptoeing the dark passages,

feet bare on sacred earth, and

a man blew a kiss to a woman today, and the whole world sighed.

— new doves, on old skin.

© Liezel Graham 2019.

Photograph by Daria Shevtsova.