I am standing among footprints in the riverbed. An ancient walk, like the one we are doing now.
Something old in us tells us to walk down river and so we do
What paths we can’t find, we make
We take off our shoes and greet the cold water.

These fossils are my favorite -
Most fossils are dead things bones ribs skulls without expression
Unmoving action figures in the last pose they were put in
But tracks are fossilized life
Creatures on the move, going places, in this place, with me
Just at a different time

We have reunited for this day along the ancient river
Her and I and the footprints
While we trek through and around and over, the Texas sun tires and dips
Our shadows become long, just as the dinosaurs shadows did
I guess theirs are longer, I shrug
I begin to remember that we will part again
But I am going to a town you had driven through, that you had touched, that you had stood in line for coffee at
Me to my home and you to yours
But even at home I will rest assured
Even on the concrete, on the linoleum, on the marble
I am in your tracks
And you are among mine
We are together here
In the same place
Just not always at the same time