In the L Section, by Stacy Murphy

This was inspired by the line “I Found Myself in the L Section of the Dictionary” — from the Billy Collins poem, “The Lanyard”



I went looking for the answers to all of it — to the meaning of life, to the Universe, to our place within the great scheme of things.

I listened to podcasts. Went to yoga retreats. Therapy. Travel. Thrill-chasing jumps out of airplanes.  Softness. Shock. 

I tried all the ways that one can contort and chase, strive in that ever-elusive quest to know oneself.

Turns out, what they say is true — to find something it does help to stop looking. 

Turns out, I found myself in the dictionary.

Turns out, I found myself in the “L” section of the dictionary.

I recognized myself in longing right away, and could remember my younger self in lust. 

Logic has its place but too much can lead me to languish in loneliness, though that I recognized too.

Luckily, laughter — loud laughter — was another favorite find.

And the future leads me to a lioness, the lioness I long to be, lively and lovely and loving and sometimes languid by a lagoon or lake with a libation and a lobster lollipop.