CALL ME BELOVED

Walk the track counter clockwise
like we can turn back time, pacing,
pierced by the placebo, pinpricks
crawling like sunbeams down limbs
once asleep, reawakening, remember
when warmth wasn’t something to
cower from; to be seen is to be loved,
not endangerment – joys of being known,
enough of this terror of being found.
Peaceful poems are hard to proffer, my
bones haven’t steeped in contentment
long enough to slough off chill. My cat
spends hours basking in windowsills, I
could learn this kind of entitlement –
curtains drawn back, breaths drawn slow,
unbothered, steadiest certainty that
of course I belong, how else could I be?