Beatitude Road

Here is the poem I wrote the first week into the project.

Beatitude Road

Lorine, I came here to find you.

There is a civil city unrest

and I feel guilt to even whisper.

I sought to hear you--

calm, cool voice like good earth, silt.

I imagined us walking together

double-button coat,

thick glasses and stockings

side by side

with black leggings, gray jacket,

my red hair.

I was not expecting

to see

scouts,

little boys in search of cattails,

leaves with insect bites,

smelling flowers that have

begun to dry up.

The further I walked beside you,

smelling the same air,

“fish, fowl, flood”

I was met with other neighbors--

a cardinal

stopped me in my tracks,

puffed out as if to say,

“This is my path! Who sent you?”

Sparrows zipped in

and out of reed beds too quickly

for me to tell whether there were

multiple birds

or one

flitting, with an identity crisis,

he thinks he is a woodpecker.

I walked all the way to the bridge

and stopped

asked you which side

owned the prize view.

The right, sun setting blaze orange

behind the telephone lines

leading to the industrial park

beyond the marsh fields,

or the left,

the river bend that curls

around the woods to the beaver dams,

the heron perches,

the grandfather bluff?

Lorine, I brought you a coffee,

a gift for our walk together

I pray I listen well enough

sipping slowly on this marsh mocha

while hearing your stories,

heeding advice.

You tell me to listen to the red-winged blackbirds,

find the joy in their song.

So, seven birds I counted

all pluming in one tree

while I stood watching them

they sat watching me.

Their liveliness inspired me

and I felt the heartaches of my own worries

dissipate.

Look--

a heron and an eagle

soared past our shadows

making an invisible helix before the heron

gargled out a surrender

and waited patiently, blue neck in the tall grasses,

several geese

waded undisturbed nearby.

Now perched,

the eagle screeched a few night notes

-goodnight maple, sumac, elm-

Few padded footsteps, heels covered in field dust,

the trail exit ahead

I walked feeling like the air was different,

my troubles, not so weighted

like the mud we had to cross.

I breathed blessings

on my walk with Lorine.