The stories are always close together;
Whether banked on the west coast looking out over the Pacific
or banked on another west coast looking out over the Atlantic.
Stories of trial and error
hope and defeat
attempt and confusion
love and war
peacemaking and peacekilling
connectedness and isolation
restful work and work gin rest
redemption and destruction
an undercurrent of longing
that someone else
on one coast or another
resonates with the stories we keep
shackled behind our eyes––
stories remarkably close together––
even with miles of history or miles of dirt between.
but we keep them to ourselves
because our story, we’ve been told,
is the only one that looks this way.
and so we imagine the space between our stories
that was never there to begin with.
Our stories are always close together.
djordan
Napa Valley
most hopeful 