Hindsight

 

That feeling came, when you know

you’re doing something wrong.

Even if it’s blessed.

Even if it’s approved, especially when

it’s what you’ve done for so long.

A comet in ten shades of fire

seared your quiet morning sky.

The unblinking sun blinked.

Birds, crickets, every chirping being

in a wide circle around you held a breath.

Held another, waiting …

The flame of your heart

gathered to a perfect burning

stillness where you turned

to this imagined, other way.

Michael Dechane

Michael Dechane is the author of The Long Invisible (Wildhouse Publishing, 2024). His work has appeared in Image, Spiritus, Tar River Poetry, Lake Effect, and elsewhere. He and his partner are owner-custodians of a home built in 1900 in a cove forest on the French Broad River north of Asheville, NC.

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