1: ...ever After

In the beginning--  

once upon a time--

in a land--

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive--

I wanted to write a poem

about endings ending with beginnings that begin at the end

 because it's all - cyclical? - yes, that's the word

I'm looking for

Words

Even when I plumb the scaly depths of emotion

and scale the harrowing heights

It's words that are my oxygen, my cantine, my foothold,

Spelling into raw skin and tear ducts the sum total of my fear, my love, pain.

I offer them to you, all of it. What I can. 

Everything ends and begins and the markers of time, those signifiers, are blurred

so much more often than childhood would have  

me believe.  

Cycles.  

Forth, and back, and back again. Forward. 

All was well, in the beginning. 

In  

The end.