POETS WALK

Father’s Day 2024

Lone Sailboat Under Cumulous Clouds

       Something opens our wings

                  —Rumi

 We had headed across the Hudson

to Poet’s Walk, four of us,

elbow to elbow

wandering through swaying meadow

grasses to a rise overlooking

the tidal river

when Auden’s lament blew in

on an uninvited breeze,

that sorrowful

invocation to stop all the clocks,

stopping me on the trail, so

tempting to lie down

in the golden grass, close my eyes

against the blistering sun

and never get up

when a tiny swallow was flushed

from a nest box beside the path

swooping down

the steep hill toward a lone sailboat

under cumulous clouds

where I found wind

enough to drift ahead to my family,

angelic in their anguish, smiles

greeting me,

not knowing where I’d gone,

drifting across shadows

on sparkling water  

—SL, 15 July 2024, New Paltz, NY