Love and the Phantom Queen of Suburbia

The Ways of Water *Wattpad Exclusive Content*

On my run through Dollar Tree, one of my prizes to myself was a pack of 6 notecards, with adorable art of a typewriter on the front. The page stuck into the typewriter had a big red heart on it, all shiny and pretty. They seemed the perfect note to receive from a writer. I've been hanging on to them, wondering how best to use them. Today, inspiration struck.

I've decided to handwrite some poetry in each one-- a different poem for each recipient, curated according to my sense of who they are as a person and the nature of our friendship. Instead of including things I've written myself and essentially self-promoting, I'm quoting poems I've read recently and loved. 

I was flipping through Don Martin's while I wait to be a god again trying to puzzle through whether or not anything in that particular collection might be good to send to my daughter. She likes more literal poems, nothing overly abstract or swimming in symbols. 

I debated a poem about water, and all the emotion and human experience it contains within it, as it cycles through use again and again. There's an irreverent quip about the water he imagines pouring out for his dog having once been made wine by Jesus, that I could see her appreciating; however, I then remembered a conversation I had with a high school friend about water and thought, NO, I know who this poem is for!!!

Sadly, I don't currently have her mailing address, and I've let the night get away from me. It was a pleasant evening, so I'm not complaining. I got out walking and picked up a couple more books at the Little Free Library by the park. On my way home, I picked up some drive thru, then chatted with some online peeps for a bit. The walking felt good, and I shared a mostly tongue-in-cheek observation with a possible suitor that increasing your To Be Read pile gives you karma, and may therefore lengthen your life. I've also found some amazing memes about how your To Be Read books are healthy signs of ambition, aspiration, and imagination.  

Back to the conversation from high school; the two of us together arrived at the idea that maybe God was water, either literally or symbolically, contained within almost everything, surrounding us and suffusing us. The Earth, itself, is mostly water. We require it for cleanliness, well-being, and survival. 

I'm not sure if I would arrive at that same conclusion today had I not thought of it then. Still, it's an interesting image to contemplate, especially since water has cycles: not just evaporation, precipitation, and so on, but also the cycles of the tides and the way they're pulled by the moon. 

Water lives, and contains and sustains life. 

As I have said, I still consider myself an agnostic. Examined too closely, the metaphor exposes its own flaws. Would the reach of God therefore be limited to places with water or a water abundance? Does the moon tugging at the tides have power over a supreme deity?  

All the same, water seems worthy of reverence and appreciation. The shapes it takes when crystallized are nothing short of art. 

It's perhaps a bit late tonight to ask my friend for her address so I can quote the poem and get it ready to mail, but I at least wanted to get my thoughts about it down on paper, while they were fresh in my mind. 

I'll have to condense it all significantly for the notecard, as though distilling and purifying. We'll see what bubbles up to the surface of my imagination tomorrow, after a full night's sleep, and dreaming.  

EDIT: Since having written this section, I came across some lovely water poems in rupi kaur's collection of poetry, milk and honey. One talks about the duality of water, that it can be both a gentle thing as well as a destructive one. The other uses imagery of a river pouring out of the mouth. Is this symbolic of the way emotions flood language and speech, as though tears unshed by the eyes rush out of the mouth, instead? 

I'll have to carefully consider what pieces of which poems to send to my friend. In the meantime, though, I think I've decided I'm just about ready to wrap this project. I need some time to gather more stories around me. I do have something left upon which to reflect, however, which I will save for tonight's (final) chapter.