The 50-year-old divorcée is not a debut performance, 
though it may seem so to those who missed the first run.
Really she’s a revival:
the 19-year-old sub-adult 
now on the big stage.
She dances barefoot 
talks to strangers 
calls her whiskey on the rocks
plans life by the season and band tour dates
Who made her believe there was a better version?
And guess what?
The bills still get paid, the kids still get loved, the toilet still gets scrubbed 
and the laughing! (“too loud”)
and the dreaming! (“too wild”)
They fill the cavernous silences left when the life-let-go
went.
She wasn’t prepared for the role at 19
for the breath-catching urgency of this fleeting and irresistible life
But now!
Now
she’s singing second chances like song lyrics,
feeling the noise and color like fireworks,
holding tight to nothing but 
          what she can hold in her own two hands
Improvisation (“Yes! and…”)
is knowing that we never know
what we can be.
                   
6/4/26