9. warm toes

digital, poetry and doodles
​2021

​

TEXT READS: 

when the dancer starts to dance again, it's as if the trees all take a big deep breath together.
and the little ants on the sidewalk get back into line, as if to say "alright men, we're back on! keep marching."
and the traffic light finally changes at the right time instead of one lane getting green for eight (i counted-8 minutes) and my lane only getting enough time for 2.5 cars to pass through.
all because she caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of tom's bakery window on the way to work and she noticed the very specific way her arms were swaying and she thought "my god, I haven't looked this beautiful since the nutcracker in 2002."
and, that very evening (after stopping by tom's for a chocolate croissant), she signed herself up for intermediate ballet.


and when the painter starts to paint again, i swear i could hear the wind take a break from blowing. i can tell because that one window with the loose screen stopped rattling, and for the whole night, not a single train passed through. because the paintbrushes were on sale at the grocery store, and because game of thrones had ended so what else was he
going to do that night, and he still has extra canvasses, his studio was still stocked. he painted a house in a snowstorm that night, and the whole world got quiet together to watch.


and you
you
the one who i haven't heard from in a long while. you who stopped packing lunches and started getting sandwiches at the coffee shop every day instead. you who's just been going to bed early every night for a while now.


when you start to laugh again, I could feel my toes get warm. they’ve been ice cubes since you stopped waving hi at the bus stop
and they stretched in that way  my grandmother's toes would stretch , we had that  in common
when  you smiled again 
​the color came back