Reckoning

Anna Goodman Herrick

You have to know you're enough.

And you have to remember.

Then,

you have to

forget

and tumble into the soft darkness

and let it hold you

Sometimes,

if you're lucky

it will whisper

to you

secrets:

like,

this is happening

you are alive

(even if)

(just barely)

and when you are on the edge of mercy I do

in that pillow embrace

of that god

that you have called pain

you have to let it toss you

back into the earthen world

and lay you on its ground

until you say

I do

I want to be here

and this time

I mean it.

More from Anna Goodman Herrick ↓

• @annagoodmanherrick on Instagram
• Her book A Speaker Is a Wilderness is out now.

You can listen to me read Anna Goodman Herrick’s poem, The Whole Story, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure