To me, it was just yesterday
Our house plants baked in the morning’s light, breathing
out their homemade recipe for a well-sustained life
I watched you, at the window sill
Nurturing the soil of the chlorophyll babies
we return to each year
I wondered what next time would be like
Watching you at the same threshold nurturing our own
I took a gasp of delightful awe
Then your breath synced with mine
As it always does when I spy on you.
Our breath in and out
As the day began
In and out,
As we adored the limitations of the campground’s general store
In and out,
As we ate omelettes for the third day in a row
In and out,
As we walked the dog longer than we would have in the suburbs
Tails wagging in the sun-filled, crisp mountain air
In and out,
As we napped from joyful exhaustion
window cracked, topless, with wool socks on
Skin to skin
Until you slipped away, to your private glide time.
When I woke, I felt our breath sync still
Imagining ...
In and out,
As you loaded that lavender kayak
Into the back of our soft top jeep
In and out,
As you sang to Sheryl Crow
Up the switchbacks to the mountain lake
we discovered earlier that day
In and out,
as you launched your beloved craft into
The calmest water to ever live
next door to the bluest sky
In and out, as you tipped
In and out, as your head hit
In and out,
In and ... in and in and ...in a..nd ...i..n .an.d .. .. a...d...i .n
…
Photo by Imleedh Ali on Unsplash
Hokis | Poetry 