The Whole of It by Helen Meneilly

and you’re drenched in the wet orange joy of it

The Whole of It

by Helen Meneilly

But eventually, you are cross-legged on your own
sofa, in your own little apartment, eating
a piece of cake topped with sugared peach
and you’re drenched in the wet orange joy of it.

Every time you touch your fingertips
to your soft pale belly, you realise: you are living. What a dream
you could be wishing for in some other, darker, life:
to be here, now.

Bathtub full of tea, cotton bedspread speckled
with a hundred blue flowers, a thrift store ceramic
planter with a sunlit basil plant forming
itself right before your eyes.

You have come so far
to love your little life so much
that you would not trade a single scar.
Love it so much, that the empty side of the bed
is already full.

First published in Baltimore Review, Fall 2025