A Path of Stars

There are many things
I would like to tell you,
my darling

My darling,
I would like to tell you
in this life
everything will be okay

I would like to tell you
that you will walk upon a path of stars
that you will travel through the forest
and never lose your way

I would like to tell you
to look only at the stars
and not the gaps between them
to look at the sun
and not the clouds.

My darling, I would like to tell you all these things
for the same reason we read fairy stories to children
and weave their years with mythologies
because there is comfort is such lies
because I want the world you live in
to carry more magic
and less sharp edges.

But, on this dark night
I have run out of comforting lies.
My darling,
I cannot promise you a path of stars.
some days you will walk upon
unforgiving concrete or sharp-edged gravel
some days you will wade through quicksand.
Tonight, I cannot conjure stars
without the black between them.

My darling, I can only wish
when you walk through the dark and tangled forest
and lose your way a thousand times
that one day
you come across a clearing

where you can sit
and where the sun will find you
and warm your face
and where you can rest.

My darling
you can rest.


--Rose Peoples, New Zealand poet, lawyer, and student from Te Awakairangi/Lower Hutt

Image: "Enchanted Forest" by Madeline McGovern