11.27.2021

as if I once perhaps belonged

            Landscape Painting 
 
It is as if I can almost still remember. 
As if I once perhaps belonged here. 
 
The mountains a deep heavy green, and 
The rocky steep drop to the waters below. 
 
The peaked roofs, the white-plastered 
Brick. A clothesline in a neighbor’s yard 
 
Made of sticks. The stone path skimming 
The ridge. A ladder asleep against a house. 
 
What is the soul allowed to keep? Every 
Birth, every small gift, every ache? I know 
 
I have knelt just here, torn apart by loss. Lazed 
On this grass, counting joys like trees: cypress, 
 
Blue fir, dogwood, cherry. Ageless, constant, 
Growing down into earth and up into history. 
 

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