patience is all

patience

pushing through provocation and pain

with poise passively plastered

on unperturbed faces

papering over the cracks formed

from the slow realisation of injustice

sent pulsating to the surface

an undoing of non-complaint

an awakening of non-compliance

and also

patience is all we have

- sometimes -

and it’s all we can grasp

all we can call upon

when life leaves us lying in limbo

in the liminal

suspended in the in-between

she doesn’t care about our rush -

always finds a way to

slow

us

down

patience is a virtue

they say

but i don’t know

sometimes

- it seems -

patience vies for power

mocking us

laughing wildly

as she thwarts

throws spanners

while holding the thing we're reaching for

just in sight

just out of reach

dangling dreams

weighty with wants

dripping with desire

frustration flipped

turned inside-out

and repackaged as

growth

still, maybe patience is this

and that

maybe she knows something

that we don’t

that i don’t

maybe she remembers something

i seem to forget

perhaps patience holds the key

to contradiction

the key that opens

space for multiple truths

embracing patience

- not fighting her -

is

stopping

slowing

waiting

trusting her

because maybe she knows that

all is unknown

and all is out of our control

and that the limbo

- the liminal -

is a place of rest

and a place of perspective

a connector

not a divider

so perhaps patience is all

perhaps

it is everything

and

it is not the only thing