I love you. Yet you loved me before I knew what love was. You made me. I didn’t make you. Together, we co-create the cosmos.

I am so much less than I wanted to be. Yet underneath the fiction of who I think I am, waiting for birth when I finally relinquish my hopes and dreams, slumbering under the blanketing deficiency of all defeat, I am so much more than I could ever imagine.

For deep down, I am you. And you? You’re me. The shape of the glass. The wine within. How could I ever have thought myself different than, other than?

In exile here, wandering in alienage across this strange landscape of shadow and form. So long it’s been, it seems like home, its fear with me as a ghost held so long it seems like a lover instead. And I, afraid to let go, as it whispers that without it, I am nothing, no one.

I stir from dreams and wake to your dawn. The wall of murk dissolved between us. Am I, too, dispelled along with all my history of fear? This cloying story of pain and loss all that I think I am.

In contemplation of light, I don’t dissolve, yet see my shadow no more.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within