Thank You For Everything

Napo Day 11–Write about something huge…

Yesterday, sparkling blue, gradual warming, another tease.
Drew said “Good thing I love the first day of spring.
I think this is the 12th first day since Equinox”.
I agreed with the great clouds, the breeze
on my arms, the seasonal inch promising more
days daffodils will surely prevail. The redbud blush
will arrive soon. 

Today I watch treetops bend against a grey-green
sky, which brings to surface the ever-present steamroll
of dread, our civilization in decline, declining right before
our eyes, and weathers impossible to weather, if not
in my backyard, then somewhere.   Somewhere people
stand with faces against a wall, their springtime gardens
in ruins, cruel rains falling, no end in sight.

The question looms –elephant on my chest:
What is mine to do, to be, to say when weather turns mean?
“Thank you for everything”, a friend writes in a letter.
And I remember sometimes it’s simple
as this: the shelter we provide, the listening ear, the
umbrellas we share, however broken, our particular
presence. Like her message, in tiny print that reads,
“Wait right there, I’ll find you. We’ll talk.”
And I know we will. The moment of relief
is enormous.