Bit of Earth Farm

Why We Walk the Dogs 

 

Yawning, you say you’re too tired 

yet we can’t refuse

brown-eyed pleading at the door.

 

Away from these walls we more easily silence

sorrow, hardship, loss

by looking, only looking.

 

Cows in the lower pasture raise their heads as we pass.

A Baltimore oriole alights on a hickory fencepost

twined with yellow flowers. The sun stretches

generous arms of light cloud to cloud.

 

The old dog walks alongside,

as the puppy bounds through ditches

up hillsides, joyously muddy

collecting scents for his dreams.

 

When grief or fear catches in my throat

I remember to look at the sky

letting higher possibilities

hover over our steps.

 

Then through evening brightness

dozens of blue and green dragonflies

swoop around us in some unknown ritual.

We wonder which of nature’s perfect gestures---

migration, mating, defense---this may be. 

Standing in the middle of our complicated lives,

we feel a lift of hope requiring no effort

and turn toward home, wide awake.

 

Laura Grace Weldon  


published EarthSpeak Magazine 
Autumn 2009

http://www.earthspeakmagazine.com/sequinoxwhywe1.htm




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