Stain-glass Eyes

Sitting and drinking coffee in Joe and Rosie’s in Dexter seems what I need right now.   There’s   easy blues being sung by a mellow, female voice.   Whispers of conversations come from around me. The milk steamer makes its sputter-dentist-machine sound. There are large windows I can look out and see dark, rainclouds and   blustery wind. My belly is seriously content after eating an avocado, hard boiled egg, open-faced sandwich.   And of course there's hot coffee. I recently went to Tennessee to see my sister.   On my return to Michigan, after she dropped me off at Southwest departures, I realized I had left my phone in her car!   I was without my cell-phone for three days!   I couldn’t call her and tell her to come back with my phone.   (I didn’t even have her phone number). I couldn’t use the ticket I had on my phone to check in my luggage.   I couldn’t text my friend when I landed.     I would normally have checked the weather, texts from

Muted phone. Walks in the cold and rain. Unopened email.   Mailbox left locked. Drawn curtains. Outcomes seem certain. I sever encounters with the world.   Is it true? Nothing can seep in? No-one can penetrate my unwilling shell?   I will numbness to be possible. But memories penetrate. Sounds, tastes and smells,   drip and wet through   The rough material of my resolve. Scenarios and clips of life, My past life, My future. Knock, open and enter. without an invitation. There are times when… My muted phone, The silence of swimming under water, The cold and rain encasing me become helpless and hopeless barriers. Words, hope and prospects of joy   Infuse my shell. And bring me back. To the open window. “You are human,”   Is the whisper I hear in my sleep. I awake humbled. Again open to encounters.   To life. “I am human”, I say. And I once again join the human race.