We Sat Outside
a poem //
We sat outside as the morning began to shake off the night.
I had to scoot my chair three times to the left to block my eyes from the rising sun.
You asked if I was okay and I said I’d be alright, something about the sun being too bright, but really, it was the right amount of light.
I wasn’t annoyed.
It was the first time in a long time I had to scoot to the side because of the sun.
For the last however many sunrises we’ve been inside and apart, watching and waiting for the world to come back alive.
And now, as far as I can see, life is beginning to come back to you and me.
It seems as though the world is slowly returning to us.
Slowly.
The last 18 months or so have changed us (and will continue to change), but there are signs of what life once was.
Remember life before Covid?
Remember drinking coffee at a coffee shops?
I wrote the poem We Sat Outside after having coffee with my friend Ben last week.
And yes, we sat outside.
I’ve started writing more pieces like this one.
I’ve started writing more like … well, me.
Writers often talk about finding their voice.
I think I’ve found my voice 3 or 4 times in the past few years.
Apparently there is no stopping growth or change or the sun from getting in your eyes.
For the last month I’ve been writing poems/pieces like this first thing every morning.
I’ve written about pain, a moose, rain, beauty, printers, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and prayer.
I’m thinking about putting them together in a PDF book.
Something simple.
Something hopeful.
Something new.
Something … else.
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Anyways, I hope you get the sun in your eyes today.
And I hope you have to scoot to the side.
And I hope that leads you to remember just how far you have come.
Because you have come a long way to get to where you are today.
With hope,
Tanner Olson
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