On Returning From Leave

By Rebekah Childers

maybe she doesn’t have the fire today.

maybe she couldn’t always persist.

maybe the damage wasn’t

done

because she took a day, a week,

a year off,

but because

she believed

she had to carry it all the time.

because they told her she had to.

because they didn’t.

wouldn’t.

I paid ten dollars

for a garden hose

and it leaked the first time I used it.

pay the extra money

next time, I say,

for skin that can hold the pressure.

but know,

eventually,

the rainy season will still come around.


Rebekah Guerry Childers is a poet and theologian from Nashville, TN. you can find her work on Instagram @rebekahchilderswrites.

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