Headstand by Fran Schumer

Headstand

Thank you for making me
give thanks. No different for me
than lifting heavy weights,
writing with my left hand,
inverting in yoga,
inverting the world —
instead of a fat elephant,
Ganesh is a god
my beauty marks are stars
the office lights that end my dreams
are constellations. In the crowd below,
a thousand stories on every stoop.
Babies being born though ours,
away, are aging. Hey — someone
somewhere is getting married.
Remember how it rained all day?
At dusk, when the ceremony
was about to begin, it stopped.
Doors to the garden opened,
and out in that wet, green yard,
overladen with water,
leaves shimmered more brightly
than my tiny diamond ring.

by Fran Schumer

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fran.schumer

Editor’s Note: Sometimes a change in perspective helps one view the future and the past with gratitude, as this poem so aptly demonstrates.