I’ll save you a place
On those days
Where waking it takes all
To muster gratitude
Yet we do
You and l
Find the fox path through thicket and dence bramble
Where light footed children before us ran
Soft in tow, elongated against shadow
Spilling their amusement like hay seeds
And stubborn burr, clinging to wool coat
Just in case it should grow cold
Then from our tree house
We’d forage for kindling
And brighten the alcoves of elm and foxglove
Just like when you were gone
Sealed in a room like you’d boarded a ship and steamed
Through hectered expanse, combed wild with distance
So far I could no longer hear your metronome
When windows flung like outstretched hands, you played Eric Satie
Able to conjur emotion without perfumed love letter
When all I had was a supple back and trained muscles
Dry with chalk, head bowed, waiting to mount and vault
Gymnast or star catcher, seems likely both
Such peacefulness in throwing out fears
With a twist of wrist, a spring and leap
When you do not hold back, that’s when you see
This world’s underpinning like a great silk train
All the seasons following in ivy headdress
Who knows the mood, a temperature of pick pockets
Punished or saved, sometimes hard to tell
We are like an indigo building storm
When weather is calm you can never tell
Invisibly, out of sight, burgeoning swell
Blowing cracked cheeks, gathering momento
If you keen into white noise, leapfrogging over din
Whispers on wind, gentle turns to fierce
We are so like our Creator, twisting at whim
Or by design
Either has the thickness of a stranger’s hide
Not our timid hearts, cowering at first lighting strike
Out of time, urging forward despite ourselves