The Roar
~ by Kim Falone
He lies next to his wife
A woman he half loves
In a hotel room near an airport
It could be any hotel near any airport
He could be any man
Who loves with half his heart
Who shuffles like a shadow
Who speaks in half truths
And lives a life
That happened to him
Sometime after midnight
A mistaken stranger
With his room numbers confused
Rattles the door handle of the man’s room
And attempts to insert a key
Perhaps it is the intensity of the fear
In his half sleeping state that opens the gate
Perhaps it is grace
But the man in the bed begins to roar
It is huge an chilling roar
The man is shocked ta himself
But he cannot stop it
The roar has entered his body
Through his pelvic floor
It lifts him out of the bed
Onto his feet
Twists him slightly
flings back his head
Stretches open his jaw
Grabs hold of his tongue
It is a wild deep animal sound
The air around him quickens
And becomes red hot
The room begins to quiver
The stranger is frightened off
The woman is terrified
And the roar continues
The sound that had lifted him up
Now takes him down
He has to crawl on his belly
Through the vibrating tunnel of this roar
That is ripping open his chest
He didn’t create the roar
But it is moving through him now
And somewhere in the midst
Of this ancient pulsating sound
Emanating from his mouth
He commits to it
He lets the roar define him
When it is finished
The man and the woman
Lie back on the bed
Silent and stunned
Finally he laughs
Then she laughs
A laughter that leaps and guffaws
A free laughter
A loud laughter
Laughter they have never shared
They laugh themselves breathless
When he returns home from the airport
The next afternoon
It is gray and drizzling
He takes off his shoes
And walks barefoot into the garden
His feet sink into the damp earth
He crouches down
And digs his hands into the mud as well
Inside, his body is still vibrating
From the sound of the roar
His throat opens again
This time the sound is softer
A slow deep solid moan
The moan of a man
Who has just given birth to himself
O
From Opening Again: Poems and Parables of Transformation by Kim Falone, Chapter 1: “Opening Oneself.” (Published here with permission from the author.)
