You cannot let go of pain

and expect it to rise from your shoulders,

like a vapor 

to be atomized by the western wind.

 

But you can release pain

and allow it to seep out of your shoulders,

trickle down the small of your back,

like tiny brooks and rills

escaping from an ancient glacier.

 

It will dribble, if you let it.

It will dribble out of your toes,

pool in the soles of your shoes,

And bleed out onto the sidewalk,

to collect in the neighborhood storm drain

to be washed out

beneath the feet of purpled mountains, 

across enameled prairies,

to oceans white with foam.