As a girl, I walked with twenty pennies
in my shoe. A penny in your shoe
was good luck, I’d heard,
and with each added penny
found on the sidewalk, I felt luckier.
The bottoms of my feet, of course, turned green.
And sometimes when I’d dangle my shoe from a toe,
it sounded like a child was shaking a piggy bank.
But dang, I was lucky. I believed it.
I don’t walk with pennies anymore,
and I don’t really believe in luck
but if I could give you some pennies tonight
to put in your boots, I would.
And an upturned horse shoe.
A kick-ass horoscope.
A candle to blow out and make a wish—
and the beautiful darkness after—
and a match to light the candle again
to make another wish. And another.
“…the beautiful darkness after” Yes.
And what of bringing our wishes into the dark, hmm? Beginning them in the flickening light, so that we can carry them into the dark.
carrying our wishes into the dark, the dark, the dark … oh, all these ways we meet the dark. xoxo
r