Remember that summer that came in so hot.
We stripped down and ran to the river every day.
We gave up on workin to bathe one another’s tired bodies
Baptize ourselves in the Holy River that runs wide through our mountain valley home.
Remember how we gave up on owning our plot to sew our post-pandemic seeds together?
20 seconds timed to wash our hands clean proper,
20 seconds to dirty them again with blueberries and mud.
What if the future is soft?
What if she opens like a woman,
Wet with the wisdom in all that those whose lives were lost and lain at her breast bone.
Suckled into that summer that we all stopped to listen.
Ssssshhhh. Can you hear them?
They whisper honeyed words from the ditch lilies
Pollinated prayers that’ll carry us while we learn our way.