The Ninth of August

poems from the north, day 6

Echinacea — photo, my own

We only appreciate the breeze
after an utter lack thereof.

It’s easier to notice the details
in nature than to examine
the passing tides of mood
that flow through constant
rearrangement.

Sometimes we need more
than the musculature of backs
to push through boulders lodged
between shoulder blades.

I feel your arms pass backward
through time to buoy me through
a patch too rocky for one.

When I ask you how to repay
the kindness, you respond,
“Just lean back.”

If you’d like to follow my vacation journey, there’s more below:

The Eighth of August