Kiwanis Loop
/I went back down to Kiwanis Loop
thinking maybe I'd find you there.
Instead I passed the same worn graffiti,
blue spray paint on the rock wall.
You took a picture of a white wildflower
and showed me how clear and beautiful it was.
The kids were tired,
so we backtracked up the hill.
You paused at the bottom for several minutes.
I was annoyed I had to wait.
Then you told me you had carved our initials
on a tree with lots of other peoples'.
I went back down to Kiwanis Loop,
the tree still stands at the bottom of the hill.
I paused for several minutes.
I touched the space you had carved out in the tree,
thinking maybe I'd find you there.
I looked at all the other peoples'
wondering if any (of them) had done the same.
I walked down the dampened, muddy trail
alone.
White, purple and yellow wildflowers,
the season slow in bloom.
The trilling of the birds, singing to my melancholy.
I found a path dug out of the earth
to walk down to a rock ledge on the creek.
As I sat there I watched
the millions of insects dancing on the water,
pinging off the surface.
I heard several fish come up, slapping the surface, maybe taking a breath.
Though they both touched there,
they would never meet each other.
A mosquito floated down onto my hand,
as if to say hello.
It floated off just as quickly as it came,
as the wind picked up speed, rustling through the trees.
I felt the wind on my face,
I listened to its song,
and the babbling, trickling water as it flowed by,
ripples of sunlight shimmering on its surface.
Past an embankment and up over a hill,
through the beech trees and the birch trees,
the sun shone glimmering free.
I watched its shape change through
the branches and the leaves.
I sat there in the stillness and watched the sun set,
slowly sinking
down behind the hill until it was gone.
By Melissa Lemay
From: United States
Website: https://melissalemay.wordpress.com