Quite frankly a little tired
of how much stamina I
have for shifting my
paradigms— 

how long I can ride
the edge
of my realm
for overwhelm— 

ah, I know 
how to bask in the sun!

But I am tired of
being the moon
surrounded by
so much night—

tired of pulling the tides,
hoping they’ll create
enough winds to
push the clouds

so that I
can light up
enough sky to
erase the stars. I

love the stars,
always there to help
accomplish all
the sun demands of me.

---

Author’s Note: I like to explore poems and interpret a speaker’s experience by asking what the speaker is really saying—not by letting their expressions provide context regarding what they’ve not expressed, but by letting their each expression provide context regarding each of their other expressions. Is this speaker switching between metaphors to find the accurate one, or adding metaphors one after the other to create one coherent train, or stacking metaphors on top of each other to create a spectrum you could look down on from above? I pulled from Dan Siegel’s “Window of Tolerance” theory to create this poem.

Lydia Rae Bush is an Early Childhood Educator whose poetry focuses on Embodiment, Social-Emotional Development, and Trauma Recovery. Her work can be found in publications such as Poetry as Promised Magazine, Crab Apple Literary, and FULL MOOD MAG. X/Insta: @LRBPoetry