Fast and Slow Down

you step out into the day
and you're not running behind
so those extra minutes find things
graffiti, bodegas, and gardens
grinning back at you and saying
thank you for seeing me

you go somewhere brand new
do something you've been meaning to do
and are not washed with fear
instead you feel lighter
and sit in that feeling
of why did this weigh on me

you come home for the first time
in a long time
to an empty house
your belongings just how you left them
and you don't feel abandoned
you feel like you belong to yourself

the rest of the night is yours
the small adjustments
you make to inanimate objects
the easy way you breathe
the easy way it could be
if you wake up a few minutes early