Walking through cedar wood
You’re around me
not even touching
a cloud of strawberry
and soft and
l   o   v   e   r
whispered through trees
a wind quiet enough
over gabled roofs
so nobody could ever hear

Ahead, a stream
glittering like broken glass
a bridge of rotted wood
I guess we’re at an impasse

Will you cross with me?
Wade through
as I warm your side?

Is it ok?
It’s what I want now
someone to squish the bugs
pitch the tent

I am waking up by myself
You’re off, packing pots and pans
every pale morning, until one day
maybe all I’ll see is a trail of boot prints
turned back the way they came

and I’m still going forward
the wide green world
washing over and through me
impossibly, a breath
filling me to bursting
Looking out at distant yellow windows
lit, accompanied, alive
I will have to learn to not be alone.