Imagine, Reckon, Know

Imagine, Reckon, Know

Eva Nappier

I imagine in your free time
Between your goings to and fro throughout the earth
And upholding the universe with your right hand of power
You sit with me in the cool mornings
On my front porch
We listen to birdsong while I drink my coffee
And I imagine you smoke a pipe
Smoke sweet as incense 
Filling our sanctuary

I reckon you enjoy the time at least as much as I do
And that you chuckle from time to time at
The lines spilling from pen to page and
The lines spilling from decades of smiles to crease my face
And when the lines remember painful things 
I reckon you scoot closer on the porch swing 
And your breath makes steam
Which fills my head and makes me real
So I don’t disappear 

I know for sure, when the tears flow like ink
And when the ink flows like tears
You are there, catching, saving, bottling
The mix of yours and mine
You whisper, “We’ll save these diamonds
These salty, mascara-smeared jewels
These, we’ll make into something lovely”
And I know for sure you will
As sure as I’m wearing Ugg boots and you’re wearing glory

You’ll make some holy-glitter craft project
Some bioluminescent healing balm
Your glowing fingerprints, smudged all over this worn world
“Perfect love has no fear,” your voice mists my brow
 As you harvest our sodium-drops 
“But, look—look in my bloodshot eyes and
 Ask—ask me,” you breathe, “if love is painless.”
And before the breakfast dishes clatter me away
And little voices claim their needs
We have many bottles brimming and redeemed
Full of life-stuff
Ready
For new creation 

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Eva Nappier
Poet & Watercolorist

Eva is an emerging poet, watercolorist, seminarian, and worship leader living on the Central Coast of California with her three kids, three dogs, and Merchant Marine husband.

Photography by Alexander Briere