The Long-Stretched Now
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

It’s not like a walk in the park,
this stepping through darkness
from the known space of yesterday
into the uncertain places of tomorrow.
This moment between past and future
is no open doorway with breezes flowing.
This now is a tunnel, a constricting funnel,
narrowing the horizon to a pinpoint,
thinning the potent possibilities
to this stretched limbo
of waiting.