Dinner Guests

from Out With Lanterns, a daily poetry practice

This may still be about shame, 
she wrote, endearing me
to her even more,
a sister friend in words
who several decades in,
mines the past just like I do
as if she’s just as sure 
as I am now 
that doubt and shame 
are beloved cousins,
not to be left out at the table
but rather to be invited in,
made normal, made welcome. 
Because after all, here we are,
all of us in the end friends
around the table and hungry–
sorrow and joy, pride 
and shame, doubt and certainty.
It’ll be the most delicious
meal we’ll ever taste
when we stop casting off
parts of ourselves as enemies.

Photo by Nadia Valko on Unsplash