Safety Net

Sometimes, you feel like you are falling.  You had to take your shoes off to feel the Earth under your feet.  It was there but didn't feel so stable.  It is quaking.  You feel it because you are still.  Very still.  You are listening.  It is moving.  And you wonder if you will fall.  You fall.  There is a safety net just under the earth.  The net is made up of hands.  Woman hands.  They hold you up just above the dirt.  You are covered in dirt, but you are not falling through it.  Woman hands lifting you and helping you to stand again.  You quake.  Your muscles quake and rotate clockwise when you are still.  You listen.  You listen to the hands.  Woman hands.  A net woven through years of catching brides and old ladies with one hundred cats.  You hear them.  You are silent; standing now; feeling the earth beneath your toes.  Your muscles quake with joy.  Your toes feel your safety net just below the earth. Your woman hands.