A Different Kind of Attention

When you wake up one morning and
everything you have ever loved
has left you.

When there are sirens shrieking
outside and no one lying
next to you
to say goodnight.

When all you can do is spin and swirl
another glass of whiskey,
or wine. When the

light on your phone
is yet another message
from home—

what have you
done wrong
this time?

Then.

Pay a different kind of attention.

Still your heart.
Calm your mind.
Take one deep breath in
and then out, and then in
again.

Do that
five hundred
times.

Until all you hear
is…

Come alive, my love
to what is infinite
within you, to

what you saw that night
when you held my hand
and looked into my eyes.
That light

shining back to you
from your dark past, from
your bright future.

Do you remember?

It is not that

you can achieve world peace or
make everyone happy
or even
bring your love back

home.

You can’t. We can
both stop
trying
so hard

but somewhere, there
is a bright light
to bend this dim path.
Somewhere.

Not far. Not out there
in the distance, but
close. So close.

I saw it in you.
I held your chin.
I wiped your eyes.

I told you
to look up.

Unearth that treasure,
my love. Unbind it.
Unfurl it.

What a precious,
hidden and beautiful
gift

you have been hiding all this time.

A Different Kind of Attention, Allison Fallon