Love and grazing

Love and grazing

Did you ever know
that when you cut the grass back
the roots die back too?

Overgrazing is
when they take another bite
of that new green growth

And the roots shrink more.
But that new growth: so luscious!
So tender and green.

so vulnerable
to the plant and so luscious
to the one who eats.

See it happen
in the mirror of still water
A prairie complete.

You are here and now

You are here, still, now,
growing up from the footprints
of evening walks.

When I awaken
I hear you
breathing beside me

It is not just my shoes
in my left hand
as I walk barefoot;
I can feel your grasp.

no coming, no going;
I carry you with me.

will I carry you still
to a new garden
where you have not
sweated and laughed

and a new house
where you've neither swept nor slept?