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| Where one can hear a leaf land |
The cabin holds the chill of night
four-walled in this warmer morning
moisture from the Gulf has fogged the glass
a stick fire in the stove will clear our gaze
into the woods sighing toward dormancy
and more sacred for it
more sky in the overarching crowns
more dappled shadow on the hushed and cooling ground
the sum of our losses welling up within us
how sadness can rise in the midst of joy
and we want to tell someone if they will stay to hear
how happiness can surprise us as just now
in a commotion of black-and-white wings
and scarlet crests a pair of pileates alights upright
with a scraping of claws from maple to cherry
one follows the other from trunk to trunk
with a cooing and chiseling and we think
perhaps they're companions for life.
—with lines from W. S. Merwin's "From Our Shadows"
