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POETRY

“Once a Wild Animal,” read by Kelsi Folsom.

Once a Wild Animal

I spend the day driven by the next time
I get to rest my aching legs
prop my throbbing ankles up on the couch
fuzzy blanket pulled up to my waist

feeling safe and cared for now
like I have permission:

to not be enough
to be incorrect
to be bone-tired.

Seated on the settee by the windowpane open
screen breathing with a whoosh that doesn’t come from me.

to be alone and unimportant
to be unproductive
to remember

this machine of need-meeting was once a wild animal
Nourished by the streams and trees
that played with Adam and Eve,

They’re not finished
and neither am I
being held in the womb of wilderness
the body of God whose
aim of love is unpredictable yet automatic.

to be a creature modern culture can’t contain
to be a woman whose feet look more like roots
absorbing the praises of God from the ground
where the grass greens everlasting witness
that I need to lie down.

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“Swingsets,” read by Kelsi Folsom.

Swingsets

Maybe it’s the rhythm
the predictable back and forth
whoosh and thwack as the
seat catches in my hand
that comforts the stability
I don’t have at home.

Maybe that’s not true
or maybe just unfair
but my hand knows
with my eyes closed
exactly when my son
will swing back and
Pause
half a second held
in the breadth of my
ready spread palm,

No magnet but the pull
of timing and intimacy
even trust because
I have not left where I stand.

And if I stay long enough
the work will change its mind
and become rest, change
its mind and become belonging
to this moment

quiet

honest

prayer.

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Kelsi Folsom is the author of three poetry collections, including Breaking the Jar (Finishing Line Press, 2022), and has work published in Ekstasis, Wayfare Magazine, Anabaptist World, The Clayjar Review, Coffee and Crumbs, and elsewhere. She enjoys hiking with her family, performing live, and getting lost in a good book. Find her on Instagram @kelsifolsom.

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