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Epiphany, by Jennifer Arp, July 2005


 

Epiphany  

Thank you
For bringing me
Here.
For the epiphanies
Flipped on one-by-one
Like a string
Of Christmas lights.
Each small
But,
Taken as a whole,
Illuminating,
Bringing joy,
Lovely to look at.
I smile
Thinking of how each small part
Makes sense
Of the bigger hole.
A string of lights
Leading me
Down the
Right
Path;
Helping me
Find
My
Way;
Like luminous breadcrumbs.
If I ate them,
One by one,
I would be lit
From within.

This writing life
Used to be
Dark
Like the Christmas lights
Kept
In the box
For most of my life.
A tangled mess 
Hidden,
Shut away
And not thought about.
Sometimes I’d try
Plugging in my lights
But
They remained

Dark.

Having to
Replace
Each
Bulb
One
At
A
Time;
Painful;
Hard.
Not worth the effort.

Had to buy a new string.

Try again.
But,
At first,
I tried the cheap set.
Worked for a while
But when one light blew,
It took the rest with it.

Change directions.
I take the time
To find the best string
Research,
Think,
Weigh the options
To find the best string.

So now
When one bulb goes,
The rest stay lit
So I can
More easily
Replace one bulb at a time
Yet have enough light
To find my way.


Maybe
I can add
more strings
in time
and,
eventually,
I can light the way
For those around me

Now,
I will be like those people
Who leave the lights strung
All year long
Outside
On the front porch.
But I will be different.
They never turn their lights on.
I’ll never
Turn
My
Lights
Off.

 

 


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