When a new moon strikes an overblown page
highlighting the changes that life has wrought
changing your story to lies and half-truths
you suddenly know you must start anew
so you find a clean slate and you write and delete
You write and delete, then you write again
wrestling images out of your chalk
naming the changes that life has wrought
listing the joys that you sought for so long
piling the words on the slate until all of the ache of past failures
— all of the problems and unsolved pains —
are buried beneath an eagles nest
within reach of a window where a lone figure sits
She sits and she thinks and she writes and deletes

She writes and deletes
then writes again
wrestling images out of her chalk
Naming the changes that life has wrought
listing the joys she sought for so long
piling the words on the page
trying to hide the problems and pains

but the nest is too small
to contain them all.

©Jane Paterson Basil