Heartbeat Toes

Have you ever felt your heartbeat in your toes? Wrinkled them under the sheets to intensify the 3…4…5…6…? Have you ever stared at someone in the dark waiting for them to awaken to you?

Life moves by in slivers, like shredded paper — who can see the full picture from where it came? And who’s to know if you comprise the whole or a section of it?

Annie Dillard describes the speed of darkness encroaching during a total eclipse — 2800 mph…

Sometimes loneliness overcomes me at twice that speed, unexpectedly and I’m left stunned and blinded.

Like moving between two physical states of being: liquid — solid — liquid, I go breathlessly from: surrounded — unknown — held — alone.

The presence of a person asleep catapults me far into deep space, floating isolated in a cold, silent expanse where all I hear is my own breath around me.