I am married to this earth,
this field, this silence,
even as the ocean offers itself.
I walk it with my dog on his leash
pulling restlessly ahead,
biting at the frenzy scent trail
he knows exists in the air.
The woods beyond are gray.
So is the sky.
I hear— the echo of
a trickling brook.
My dog, inhales—
the last traces of
dying greens, the odors
of tantalizing blues yielding
to the coming season.
The horizon reels away
until my eyes can no longer
take it in and the sky matches
the coming night—
contains itself in the field,
in every thing.
Drops of rain splash
and fall off my nose
onto my tongue.
The taste is bittersweet.
The scent, silences
my dog’s barking
with the promise of petrichor.
The hidden brook silently turning
breathes in the renourishment—
the earth, the field,
praise the distant blessing
of a dying Hurricane Debby
bequeathing its last bits
for this life.
In my *******,
I feel the grace
of an unseen promise.
In the walk back home,
I am aware that each
foot thud is full of mud—
the marriage of ocean and land.
