Upcycling

Every time you threw me away

I escaped and ran straight back to you

both of us pretending to forget why

until the last time

you piled so much trash on top of me

I did not know what was me

and what was trash

Eventually I remembered who I am

an imperfect woman who deserves better

I climbed out

I walked straight home

I did not break up with you

so much as I broke up

with a part of myself

that allowed myself to be thrown away

I decide what stays

and what goes

I am upcycling

becoming someone more 

than the sum of my parts

Copyright 2020 Diana Shellenberger

Paradox

Paradox

Before sunrise

silhouettes of peaks rear up

as high as any I’ve seen

At this altitude

the earth tilts toward sunlight

in seeming slow motion

Like the star it is

the sun appears white hot pulsating

between two aretes 

From where I stand

the peaks remain mysteriously untouched

by heat and light

cold and black as spent coals

I practice subjecting myself to paradox

neither accepting nor rejecting 

the light and the dark

of the sun and the peaks

the light and the dark

within me

letting Nature become

Copyright Diana Shellenberger 2020