The Fable of the Woman who Rises and Falls and Rises

author’s note:

Dedicated with fond appreciation to Aesop (c. 620-564 BCE).


THE FABLE OF THE WOMAN WHO RISES AND FALLS AND RISES

For a long while
she’d walked and fought this desert
and in doing so, felt proud
because she’d proved
she was tough enough
to endure the sun and dust and wind
and keep marching.

But here’s what
that motivational book doesn’t tell you:
we all live with limitations.
In her head she told herself she was winning
but the fatigue in her heart said
you are definitely losing.

However old beliefs
don’t die that easily
--she marched on.

But even camels must bow down
occasionally--
eventually
she lost her argument with gravity
and fell to her knees.

But then she won again--won
because down in the rock and sand
she admitted defeat.
Not a popular word: “humility”--
we keep trying to forget that truth
even as the wise ones
keep trying to remind us.

In that state, she grieved
for her poor weak foolish self
until she finally tired of grieving

then
as she folded back out
she realized how fertile
a barren land could be
when you allow yourself
the honesty of feeling.

But in short time
that old urge rose again--
she felt the need to march on.

But as she stood she told herself:
this time I must remember
what I keep forgetting:
I need to lower myself down
now and then--
’cause if I don’t
I’m doomed to fall.

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