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old hurts feel like home;
they were---they are a familiar presence.

intoxicating the senses
like a familial soft-baked cookie
just out of the oven...

yet they are still hurts, no?

:::

long were we sick

in the throws of a social pandemic.

this viral pandemic

has only made the latter plight

nothing but more lucid.

:::

in every gap of pain

is an opportunity

for love's influence.

:::

place your hand into the striations

of light and shadows.

the back of your palm will then

become a mirror;

it reflects the truth

that we are all a herd of zebras

migrating through life,

grazing on grasses of experience,

and following the rains of adversity---

painted in stripes of shadows and of light.