it is not time
no, i sit at the edge of a still pond
peering through myself into the depths below
and i try to bring up with my heart
and then my hands
the truth

but just as I grab it,
it slips back below the surface
unknowable, unexamined.
I want to hold it yes,
and press it to my heart
press you to my heart.
Take you inside me, pure and deep
but you drop away,
into the shadowy land
where i cannot go

I ache for you here
But away in the water you must stay
you are an unfinished tadpole
still filtering air from water
I want to believe you are transforming
and soon you’ll move beyond what you know

But I am all flight and freedom
and you water bound
I am getting a moment of my truth
that what I breath I am.

And i know you are not me,
and yet you are showing me
a water logged part of myself.
I see movement and stagnation,
And yet I see
metamorphosis in me.
I hope we get to soar together,
the eagle and the frog.
Or at least we grow together or apart
realizing finally we are one and the same

-Paige Stewart

artwork by Allison Kunath