You are here.
You are with me
You are safe.

Words spoken outof a dream
Never said but the feeling upon waking is unmistakable 

I should have gotten up and written it all down
But I didn’t want the feeling to end
So I keep repeating it over and over again
Like a mantra

You are here.
I am with you 
You are safe.

They didn’t mean safe,like they were protecting me.
They meant it as safe, like they are not the hunter.
not the thing to fear.

The wolf says this to the hind
So she will not startle.
I am not your hunter
You are safe from me.

But she is a nervous thing
And still looks around to see who is speaking.

And we were like birds returned to the forest.
Scattering about looking for what the snow of winter had uncovered.
Looking for nourishment after a long migration.
Chattering to each other.
Unconcerned of being watch
But we flitted about quickly in the way birds always do.

We spoke as women speak when no men are around.
We spoke in our own language
And we allowed you the intimacy of listening
And you did not interrupt us is our prattling
You did not interject or try to make yourself the center of it (though you often were)
You just lazed like the lion amoung his harem.
Yawning and batting the flies with his tail.
But we knew your were listening 
How privileged you were to listen to our conversations.
Most men never hear us this way.
Not bc they haven’t been in rooms with women
Mostly bc they don’t know how to listen.
But you knew how to listen.