well-traveled

My mother taught me to travel well

tho she hardly made it

any of the places she dreamt to go

settling for the subversion

of a National Geographic subscription

in a household intent on 

separation from the world


She showed me the value of moving things

not related to the reason you were going

if doing so got them closer

to where they needed to be

to see that each small move made

is part of the whole of getting it done 

so  that a pile of clean clothes walked 

from the basket I was passing

to the stairs by the door I was exiting

was half the work of restoring them to my room
  

And I am just now learning  

how to harness that power of making each step I take 

move me simultaneously in multiple directions  or

shift me into synchronicity with people and things around me,

the life-multiplying power of living moments fully invested

experienced as a self-sustaining fuel


My mother taught me to travel 

well past points she had instilled

when she left and birthed me again

into freedoms I hope she has since found

she did not travel most but

she traveled beyond

and walked me with her to stand comfortably 

past the threshold of the unknowable