A STORY. 67. THE TOUCH OF LOVE
Days have passed. There has been a mouse in the house, which has meant getting out the catch-and-release trap. Now that excitement is over. The mouse has been released on the university grounds.
Also you have been preoccupied. Or, as the poem goes, things are blowing around in your mind, dislodged from wherever they’ve been lodged.
Doors inside
are opening
Air is blowing
between rooms
tugging, towing
stuff from shadows and gloom
to bask in the sunlight
of a warm afternoon
Those things basking in the warm sunshine are not all warm and cozy.
The poem is about
a sunny spell
after a winter
from hell
That winter from hell - it was several years. Not all hell. But so much rotten.
Though everything could have been much worse.
One moment that has played over and over in your mind is the moment of reading the email from the Dean. So short:
Upon due consideration, due to the extent of voluntary compliance, the conclusion has been reached that, at this moment, further measures are not required.
Nothing in the email about the firebrand’s outcry against a totalitarian mindset. Nothing in it about liberty until harm. No ruffling of feathers.
And yet it was one of those big moments for you - and for the university. It was followed by an enrolment surge. Everyone knew why the students came. The administration did not comment.
Something else has come out of the shadows and gloom. You are alone. You have been alone for years.
You remember a book in the old used bookstore. It was in the short pile under MOMENTS. Maybe you will leave MOMENTS for a while and turn to that book. THE TOUCH OF LOVE.
To be continued . . .
A STORY. ALL THE CHAPTERS ... UP TO NOW
https://elsaiselsa.substack.com/p/a-story-table-of-contents-up-to-now
Posted July 15, 2024