Meeting in Fifteen

(fifteen minutes)

(fourteen minutes)

I stretch my back, growing tall
like a tree, they say in yoga class. Grow tall, like a tree

imagine an invisible thread pulling my head to the ceiling and beyond
to the sky, to the heavens
my face breaking
through the clouds

(thirteen minutes)

to see God 

I drive my shoulders into the earth,
grounding, they call it,
becoming one with the ground

I’m becoming one with the floor of my cubicle
the 1980’s carpet that smells,

(twelve minutes)

and lost its original color decades before.
Have I lost mine?

imagine there is no carpet beneath me,
no two floors of workers, of busy bees, beneath me,
twiddling their thumbs faster and faster
to clinch sales faster and faster

(eleven minutes)

to move numbers,
to make money,
faster and faster

imagine there is no lobby, no building at all
imagine there is no foundation

(ten minutes)

how deep do we have to drive, how grounded do we have to be,
before we finally find the ground?

the earth–Mother Earth, they call her

I drive my shoulders

(nine minutes)

into her like a spade, sharp and strong
pointed, determined, seeking, sinking into her layers
through the soil, through the silt as my head

(eight minutes)

rises beyond the galaxy
Is God in the stars? Or the earth?
Or even, could it be true,

(seven minutes)

that God is in this building?
in my cubicle?
this carpet?

these trinkets on my desk

(six minutes)

are sacred objects: The Shroud of Turin,
the chains of St. Peter

(five minutes)

I get up and go
I have a meeting

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Sarah is a Dallas-based writer who is passionate about creative community. She is active with Art House Dallas, serving as an Awaken Creativity group lead. A proud dabbler, Sarah writes and shares short fiction, personal essays, and poetry. Sarah is mom to two wild and creative daughters.