POETRYStill Alive and WellSarah Frances Moran
Image © Austin Prock
Inside my body rests this adventurer.
I know it was birthed by you. The way fresh air
fills your lungs and how a campfire and a cold beer
can be like heaven.
Riding bikes down bayou banks
and tiptoe walking across railroad bridges.
We are wanderers. Romantic gypsies just a little
misunderstood.
Do you remember giggling children fake
Boot- stomped WWF Style? You were Jake the Snake
and we’d die laughing.
Do you remember how you turned us into
rocketships? How your strong hands catapulted
us across the Parker Road Apartment pool but also
across a childhood?
I wonder how many faeries wearing boots
you’ve seen in your lifetime. The miles of terrain your
feet have touched the faces who’ve witness your smile.
How many stairways to heaven you’ve passed by
because you weren’t ready yet.
Still alive and well, you’re still alive and well and I’d make
huge bets that Jesus would get down with you. That he’d sit
at a table over drinks with the drone of a guitar riff cutting the
air in the background while you discussed… how the riff raff
made the world a more interesting and beautiful place.
How forgiveness is this thing that’s more important than young years understand.
How your legacy is left inside the music I’ll always hear when I think of you. Shhhhh listen to
this guitar…. Turn in up…..listen.
I know that we’re a testament. That these silly birthed beings
show what kind of man Heaven needed you to become. A place
for everything and everyone.
In the words of a wiseman,
“What I am trying to get across to you;
is please take of yourselves and those that you love;
because that is what we are here for,
that's all we got, and that is all we can take with us.
Are you with me?”
Are you with me?
Do you dig it?
We do, we really do.
Sarah Frances Moran is a writer, editor, animal lover, videogamer, queer Latina. She thinks Chihuahuas should rule the world and prefers their company to people 90% of the time. Her work has most recently been published or is upcoming Drunk In A Midnight Choir, FreezeRay Poetry, Rust+Moth, Maudlin House, Alyss and Flapperhouse. She is Editor/Founder of Yellow Chair Review. You may reach her at www.sarahfrancesmoran.com
