second incubation

broken open

it is part of what 
life in process 
is about

breaking open
second incubation 

i sit and 
remember 
the past four years
where i started 
when life 
started over

it comes back to a 
house in a little town

i think of that 
house and
all i can describe 
is 
incubation

second 
incubation

one night i 
balled up into 
a curl
on the hall floor of that house
unable to stand 
before the grief and fear
yet curled 
up in a safe place
a place where 
i learned how to stand back up
and look out

from this vantage point
it feels as if it were just 
yesterday 
and yet
it is a lifetime ago

second incubation 
led to 
a birth of a new kind

i'm not talking 
theology
or religious conversion 

i'm talking 
about that moment 
when i finally
put on the mantle 
GOD had long ago prepared 
for me
the mantle of identity
the mantle of 
my identity

second incubation 
and this time
i heard and saw
and lived
into the 
being 
GOD 
had long waited 
for me to become

everything before this time
remains blessed and sacred and real
and me

everything after this time
is fully me

second 
incubation

and it all took 
place in a little 
house 
in a small town