Made Metaphor
by Stephen Bartlett

They are kind and wise.
We know those as just words, 
we want to feel what they feel, 
know the easy of their togetherness. 
And so we make them a metaphor, 
make them into gram cracker paste on your soft palate, 
or feeling for a hand to hold, diving waves, underwater, the easy smooth roll, the purl of a smile,  
listening to the pop clack of stones churned by waves before shore. 
Can they be dandelions blown by wind, a circle complete? 
They aren’t metaphor, 
they are only and simply themselves, 
unencumbered comfortableness walking barefoot into a new life, 
imagining with every step, knowing how to trust, 
They are love. 
They trap us in our truthfulness, 
tempt us with our goodness.
Honestly right, irresistibly kind, and insatiably free. 
Created with impulse, 
considered and conveyed with patience.  
They are love, and they show us again 
how to be ourselves, how to know, feel, and be free.