I walked home
a cool breeze
came up often
enough for comfort
this flower
a dahlia
I think
followed
the parade
callas
roses
lavender
rushing toward
beauty and
Summer
I was readied to post these stilt walkers facing fervently forward to mimic your bronzed cranes but then you moved on ahead passing me on the freeway landed back home before I could hold you with strong arms and march with you from water silo to wide sky - all ours these acrobatics of traversing hard ground soft tires spokes on the certain wheels moving against the silenced upstream crowd lookers on bowed heads in the frame of balancing and returning and making a determined way through with hands remembering just what to do
home
what I mean is walls
silence
cushions
sliced onions
a cat's purr
sidewalks with people walking
fresh vegetables green against green
smaller than your sky place
but mine
wind and wings rush by
the whooping crane
teeters frozen in brass
or the edge of extinction
semis roar down the road
drowning out bird sounds
and barreling toward
the stupefied deer
when the sun has sunk
leaving a gentle glow
pine needles framed like old bookplates
reporters happy that tomorrow
will be hot the day after hotter
and so on
each Winter shorter
each Spring so warm
Summer has a competitor
the Mesa bakes
the sky run a trail of rocks and dirt
the Pine Bark Beetles defeat the trees
I hope for rain to wash the dust from my cheeks
and the gray sorrow from my hair
Winter hasn't quite let go of us yet We escape inside for curry soup and cups of hot tea in Spring, cups that neatly fit into the prayer mitts of our hands. Slowly bailing water from our hearts. Alone, for the moment, at the table. Waiting on the fortune that season's changing light may bring.