HOW    IS    IT   (IT  IS  HOW)

How is it (IT IS HOW)
that my steps
found yours walking towards me.   .   .

How is it (IT IS HOW)
that my outstretched arms
had yours reaching me.     .     .

How is it (IT IS HOW)
that my eyes sought you
but you saw me.     .     .

How is it (IT IS HOW)
that my darkness 
found your light.     .     .

How  is  it
(IT  IS  HOW)

I wrote this poem shortly after reading
I wrote this poem shortly after pondering
Ada’s poem,

The Raincoat

Ada Limón – 1976-

When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say, even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.

From The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) by Ada Limón. Copyright © 2018 by Ada Limón. Used with the permission of Milkweed Editions. milkweed.org.

Just who’s most responsible in keeping you from getting wet
Just who are you most responsible for keeping dry

HOW IS IT (IT IS HOW)