Soon Spring

It took me a long time to get 

Back here, back home

It helps that the sky is bright from
This moon

One way or the other,

As I sat here tonight

Recentering into what I can’t quite say,

I saw what I’d been doing, 

Casting away, reimagining and

Figuring out this new way forward

Whatever it is, and

A little tweak of light sparked

From the back, beyond the main barn

Night vision kicked in

As hints of color

Emerged in the bright black

Lit night sky, 

Spring coming on, and as I 

Thought about this place

My sweet old girl

Ticked through the air

She has started coming 

Around now and then

And I paused to think about her,

Perhaps I scratched her ears, and 

Raising my eyes to the

Skies through the back window

There they all were, flying big

As life in their green gold years

Beautiful in that light, our fat sheep, 

Our goats, their black tipped ears,

Dogs leaping into the pond

Racing to catch a thrown stick

Flying into the field from the open doors
Of the barn’s threshing floor,

Trotting the property line in goodbye

I am wrapped in miasma, 

The animate residue 

Of this old farm, from which

I lift and I let go,

Carrying who and what

I won’t relinquish into the

What will be will be 

It was the most extraordinary moment 

Of souls alive 

The ones that stayed

And others, flooding into 

My calming heart

Finding that its steady beat

Is theirs, with mine, 

Is ours.

March 21, 2019