Cardinals sing from
Bushes and treetops
Calling their forever
Mate that’s bobbing
From line to
Post like a
Telegraph message morning
Hasn’t arrived though
You can see
It’s puffs of
Yellow like a
Steam locomotive just
Beyond the hill
As no more
Than a thousand
Crickets coming off
Third shift wish
A warm goodnight
In life and
Love we often
Run away from
What we are
And choose what
We are not
Eventually both catch
Up with us
Surrendering we fall
Defeated but just
Until our heart
Takes its first
Full deep breath
At long last
Alive
It is raining
A small puddle
Forms at my
Feet bubbles born
By drops like
Rising bread loaves
From mother’s oven
I imagine a
Marsh with frogs
Leaping as I
Listen to the
Tiny tat tat
Tat of raindrops
And see the
Water collecting on
Grass like a
Thousand distant galaxies
I am nothing
Nothing but free
The world my
Canvas and I
The pallet splashing
Colors and creating
Everything a new
A dab of
This and some
Of that a few
Wheres and a
Number of whos
But at once
A masterpiece called
Me
For so long
I left to
Leave leave things
And people behind
Pain and problems
Unable to bury
Burn or ignore
I turned away
Running somewhere else
I found a
Wayside a respite
A place to
Mend and recover
Now strong again
And happy still
I’ve realized that
This isn’t home
But a refuge
Now absent of
Blunder denial or
Mistakes I set
My eye on
Somewhere new somewhere
That calls me
Calls me home
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 