I’m both the prairie mouse
And passenger behind the window.
In the world, of the world
Encased away from the world.
Am I looped into the
Third Space?
A white girl temporarily
Experiencing Bhabha-land?
I know better.
I know my cultural shift
Between two same cultures
Bears no colonial oppression.
I remember a sodden Northwest Day,
My heart friends and I,
Zoka and the moment.
A realization at once familiar.
We don’t have to be “either/or,”
We can be “both/and.”
Mid-sip on a sugary coffee
There isn’t, can’t be, a clear dividing line.
This morning, coffee again,
I am at home in a glorious sunrise.
I am also in our mountain “chateau” sunrise.
I am also at a literary conference sunrise.
I am witnessing a sunrise in my heart.
Soon I will part with more
Tangible objects with emotional significance,
And rend a few more holes in my heart.
The best way to let the sunrise shine through.
