Song for an Angel, or, Prayer to Meet You on the Other Side of the Lion's Gate

Yesterday I tried a new type of hummus that turned out to be a company that does suicide prevention work. I lifted the lid and was met with freshness foil that talked about looking for the light to continue. I pulled up their website because I thought I had been tricked into buying some kind of advertisement for Christianity (maybe I have) but, it turns out, "looking for the light" was more about not killing yourself and keeping an eye out for people who might be struggling.  It's not what I had expected from hummus, but, there it is.

[pause]

Today I am laying across a bed in a guest room - house empty. My hair is wet and combed, dripping a bit. I am freshly out of the shower and dressed in all white: a tank top and spotless sweatpants that feel like a soft cloud along my legs.

Today I have been thinking of the angels I have met in my life. Perhaps that's what this outfit is. Some sort of lazy camp towards dressing like an angel. 

Angels not so much in the religious sense but, rather, in the starseed or alien sense of the word. 

I've been thinking, specifically, about angels who have cut through my life in the throws of some kind of growth or pain, or growing pain. Frustrated and downtrodden, perhaps, yet still having a beautiful gleam in their eyes. Hopeful. Clear. Determined. 

I wish I could have healed some of your pain

or made something easier

but I know better than to try and interfere with celestial wounds. 

You will heal in time 

and will continue 

with your pure-hearted and necessary flight. 

(image: Ellis Ahn photographed by Jin Woo Jeong for Teeth Magazine)