Posted on April 3, 2025 by Jenn Zatopek

SMALL MYSTERIES

All real life is encounter.
– Martin Buber

On a cold morning when I feel dead inside,
half-broken from losing you, I drive the eight lonely minutes

across town and buy an oat milk chai at my favorite Starbucks.
The barista with chestnut hair and clear gleaming glasses asks,

Remind me of your name again? I want to learn it since
you’re one of our regulars, and beams,

the halo of light enveloping us both.
Later I sit in the car and weep,

capturing this fleeting moment of goodness on a day
when I felt the distance between us like a paring knife

and I the apple. How do you explain the mystery
of connection? Forced contact enacted by store policy?

Maybe it was something else entirely,
how kindness is a divine letter opener to the heart for love,

like it’s the ocean of air we breathe everyday, if we’re lucky,
like the curious gaze of the friendly barista as she smiled back at me.

We can do this for each other! I preach as wild-eyed and energetic
as the prophet John was, with honey in his mouth and locusts in his hair–

We can be glorious suns in each others’ orbits,
shining brightly into the darkness, ushering in dawn.

Image: Unsplash