Leap

• There is a list of joy
• synonyms in section 4 of the dialectical
• behaviour handbook, including
• bliss and cheer, euphoria
• and hope, zest and zeal,
• gay, elation.
•  
• My favourite is bliss
• because of the sibilant s.
• Can you imagine a snake
• smiling after a big meal?
•  
• I’m returning from hospital
• after week 2 of trans-cranial
• magnetic stimulation, ear ringing,
• eye twitching, shoelaces double tied
• so I can’t trip over myself.
•  
• I Facetime Joan as she walks
• near the sunny North Sea
• on Sylt, Germany.
• The water is grey cellophane
• and wind flips her new bangs
• back from her glorious
• wrinkled forehead.
•  
• She says animals known
• for hopping never suffer
• from depression. Can you imagine jumping
• on a grave like a childhood
• mattress? Quick, someone tell
•  
• the elephants it’s impossible
• to be sad when you’re close
• to the sky. Quick, someone
• call the cops.
• I’m a crying kangaroo
•  
• skipping past rows of taxis
• and patients smoking cigarettes
• with tall IV pole companions.
• I’m bouncing home, swinging
• my arms. I’m a coiled spring.

Photo by Ashish Upadhyay from Unsplash