Post-election floating

Today I sat with patients

Who didn’t quite know what to say.

And neither did I,

It doesn’t feel good to be a guide without a map.

I looked for direction from a friend

Who gently offered, “what if you just floated together?”

And so we did although the water was cold,

We searched for things to feel buoyed by.

I listened today.

One person laid fresh flowers on their neighbors’ doorsteps,

Another brought silence pregnant with defeat.

Still another held fire in their eyes as they rattled off the places they’d be fighting in the next weeks.

I have my last client in an hour.

It might be another 50 minutes of floating.

And maybe that’s enough for right now,

When we live in a country that doesn’t know how to hold.