Poetry Wednesday: Then I Stood There a Long Time

I got up.

Then I Stood There a Long Time

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.
—Mary Oliver, “It Was Early”

There is no lovely way to put this.
It was sleeting. I am not going to tell you
how the gray sky unfolded like a somber rose,
how the misty air softened every dark
and barren thing. It was sleeting.
And slick. And when I fell, it hurt.
A lot. B…