UNRAVELING

Like a snake coiled around its prey, I have held onto myself

the power of fear and restraint bullying my courageous child

into reluctance and the belief that he had been unable to move

and had no room to be himself

My unraveling resembling the art of a snake’s release, no longer feeling the need to hold onto it’s feast,

realizing that the still creature it had been harboring was just a rock,

and that it was more afraid than hungry

Many faces had been watching it in it’s created habitat for years

watching its every move with a fascination that resembled terror

If only they knew how timid and easily threatened it was—as to them, it was a stunning, fearless creature that intimidated them—

If only they knew that its coiling represented fear and a need to act fast

before its sense of danger consumed it,

depositing itself into an angst that would overtake, leading to death

Everyone was watching, and even if they were not, it felt as if they were

This unraveling like that of a snake recognizing that it is safe to relinquish control, to merely be,

a process like no other—something I will do my entire life

having to allow myself let go, over and over again

As I uncoil, unravel, release, the shimmering gold of sunlight sitting on the white wall,

reminds me of who is hidden in the wrapping—a good omen

reming me that my North Star in this world of noise is, in itself, the art of letting go

the art of unraveling