Sense of Encouragement

My innocence has traveled too far
A woman can only view so many lands without beginning to lose a crumble,
A raindrop of herself here and there, out the ears or out the fingertips
I wish I could remember the day I first lost that dust from myself
But it’s shrouded in the cruel mystery of lost things

Yesterday I dropped my sense of encouragement
Watched it melt into the cracks of the earth
Right now I’m leaking hopefulness, but thank God it’s a slow leak

Sometimes you see your face in the mirror for the first time
And there are so many spots, lines, pain points, spirits
You came from some other place, though
a place where the boys start at 40 and work backward
The glorious lines around your eyes vanish when you smile and your radiance lingers

I feel so ancient and you're so young yet, so curious and childlike...
dashing about with questions in your eyes until finally you fall asleep at night
to your dreams of gentle monsters and heroic earthworms.

Kendra Saunders

If you have any comments on this poem, Kendra Saunders would be pleased to hear them.