open windows

After being locked up for years
she decided she would open the windows wide
at night,

open them all the way,

to invite the burglars,
the desperate,
the needy one
to enter.

She even put a ladder to the window
and a sign

"solicitors please come in",
"all welcome".

At first it was a stray kitten
who found its way
into her bed
on top of the covers
and into her heart.

Then it was a small boy
who was lost,
homeless,
abandoned by a mother
who needed her drugs
more than a son,

a peddlar,
tired of the road,
weary of all the "no's",

a young girl,
pregnant by her father,

a lion tamer
who could no longer
scare the hell
out of wild beasts,

a banker who invested his soul
in the black hole account,

the manless maiden,
haunted by the fugitive man,

a roller coaster,
that lost it's bearings
when it found the straight and narrow...

even a pear tree
began to grow
after seeds and soil and rain water
blew in during a storm
that lasted seven days
and seven raging, flashing nights...

when still she kept
the window open.

She didn't want to close out the stars
ever again,
nor the worms,
nor the beggars,
who were so clear
they wanted her Heart.

She needed every single visitor,
large and small,
to come
and call
on her Heart.