How to Begin

                         I thought mostly about myself,

                         and my story, and the need for

                         a story in general...

                               —Meir Shalev

a  story meanders, takes unexpected

shortcuts, stops, and then moves on—

along the way some events leave 

indelible marks, shifts and gorges,

secrets bury themselves until

a knotted string with a buried piece

of a story calls out, seeks a space

that’s open and wide enough to

begin to tell the story that remained

buried under years 

it requires both will and a root

head shovel to dig down and draw out

those buried shards of memory