Pandora

2023:

I understand why Pandora opened her box.

I want to open my own (although it may be as foolish)

What is the statute of limitations on a memory?

Is it to no avail piecing together a puzzle

Twenty-four years after it began coming apart

(and thirteen years after it was exacerbated)?

The mind is a powerful protector

A mighty barricade

When it comes to processing events best left in the dark

One woman's search for candor and grace

Inhibited

By her own sense of caution and "don't go there"

The body may know, but the mind ostensibly refuses

Perhaps it is better this way.

Must one walk through the fire (more direct)

For closure

Or is it satisfactory to walk by its light?

In a world of child soldiers and school shootings

My pain registers not even on the scale

Everyone has trauma, I think,

And excuses made

I shove the lid closed again.

Yet even still this equation will not balance.

What remainder lurks pent up behind this dam?

It needs be better to leave this box closed,

I convince Pandora.

Is having answers worth the cost,

Worth casting forth these memories upon the earth?

Take me to the crux of the matter

Where dream and reality collide.

Is there mending in this odyssey

Or shall I sprint ahead?

When I was younger I tallied the days on my skin

To bridge the disconnect

Imagining the darkness would last a lifetime.

But El Roi has engraved me

In the palms of his hands.

He has stored up my tears

In a bottle like precious fragrance.

He has given me a Spirit of power,

Not fear

This promise I clasp close to my heart.

The box is in no hurry

And time remains

To approach it with patience and grace.