Daily Cascade

Further than Departure

Prompt:
Have fun with these ten words: wording, leash, soak, stock, platform, grandmother, plane, eternal, inspector, and February.

----------

Further Than Departure

My *grandmother sat beside me,
her house-dress smelling faintly
of lavender and love.
“Travel,” she said, “and
let the world *soak into you.
Don’t just pass through it.”

So, on a gray morning, one *February,
I stood on the *platform,
my ticket folded like a secret in my glove,
and the loudspeaker’s *wording
blurred into the crowd,
his each syllable trailing off, as if
loose cash in careless hands.

A distant *plane carved a silver line
through the pale, uncertain sky, while below,
the newsstand displayed its *stock of headlines
and heartbreak, while an *inspector paced
the edge of the yellow line,
measuring time with polished shoes
and a narrowed gaze.

I felt something *eternal stirring,
not in the engines’ roar
or in the timetable’s strict command,
but in my grandmother's steady soul
having my back, her words though
so far away now, guiding me forward
without a *leash, trusting that

I would come up with truths
to have them *soak into people
better than tears with their *wording
further than departure, and love
no inspector could tally,
and no grief could freeze.