What if this time I stayed?

What if I didn’t have to lift off 

to try and compensate 

for the time I spent in the subterranean.

Nor to explain or make excuses for when I disappear or fade into the background

And then I don’t have to grow larger than life 

to make sure 

That i’m visible

That I matter

What if I just stay here for a while

Here

In body 

In mind

In tact

With my rhythms

Not leaving

Not absconding or disappearing 

Not charging up and out

Just here

In connection

 In intimacy 

In love

And when I feel out of touch or like I’m beginning to lose

The thread, I remember to stay

I call upon the human and plant allies who remind me to stay planted because they too are in this remembering

They too are learning how to stay with themselves

To stay here

And when we begin to leave 

Into the scrolling, the smoking the drinking the numbing the “other

We place a hand on the others’ shoulder

And beckon them back inward

Closer 

Toward themselves