The Day the Wind Came
By Jessica Cotten
And the room grew quiet and a gentle breeze wafted through,
the kind of breeze that tosses a leaf across the pavement,
It circled low at first but then wound its way up to brush itself against our faces.
It started out soft,
but it was thick,
it was hot,
it was gentle,
it was there,
and as we stood, we marveled,
each of us in our own way,
at the suddenness of this
encompassing gust of air.
We took it in, this wind.
We took it in so that every time we inhaled,
a piece of it entered us
and took flight within our hearts,
like a dove swooping low,
then soaring up and up and up.
And some of us wept,
for in the dove
in the wind
in the inhalation
we saw ourselves
not as these imperfect, stressed, frail statues,
but as carefree, safe children.
Yes, like children again.
And we wept because of the innocence, for we had lost it.
Some of us had never even known it.
But that day, as the wind blew, we all experienced it
and we found ourselves
saying things we never thought we’d say,
things like
freedom for all
equality now
gentle help
finally we gather as one
this is true power, true power is surrender.
And then…
A bubbling up,
a slow, steady stream of gibberish
from some of us,
but it was less gibberish
and more like secret languages
that we could only understand
with our hearts,
languages we all loved.
And though we could not understand with our minds
what we said
we did not care,
for the groans expressed
far more than words
ever could.
And after a while it died down.
But we all looked at one another and knew
we were not the same,
we would never be the same,
we did not want to be the same
as we were
before the wind came.
Jessica just published her first poetry book, Sea Between: A Collection, with themes of relationships, love, processing pain, and discovering Presence in unlikely places. Learn more about it and read her journal online at https://jessicacotten.com.