Having Loved as a Ribbon

By Jayla Jones

Having Loved as a Ribbon

by third year Ostara Maharaj 

After her heart had been tethered and tied

She looked to the moon

She reached and she reached 

Hoping to find another “I love you” 

She’d hear songs and think of the soft touches 

And scrunched noses that love was supposed to be about 

She wondered if under the ground or above the sky 

There was an invisible ribbon tying her  

to some secret “meant to be” 

She was right, in some ways 

The ribbon was there 

But it wasn’t pulling her closer to one thing 

Rather, it was section in the cat’s cradle that is 

being touched by someone else 

She’d sometimes reminisce on how her ribbon was once 

tenderly knotted and intertwined with someone else's

And wondered if she should cut it away completely 

But between sips of coffee and liquor the ribbon grew less taught 

And instead loosely hugged her 

And she grew more sure that she would not cut it 

For it was proof that she had loved, 

That she had shared

And that she had given 

It was proof that she would tether and tie once again 

For that, she was eternally grateful.