A Lonely Walk

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by Laura Parker Roerden

Image by Cornelia Gatz from Pixabay.

On a fine
companioned afternoon,
one never
has to notice

the stars shining
side by side
or a single blade of grass
hunched over others,

now safe
as if
the wind

had thrown its weight,
a thumb on a scale
tipped for mercy.

But in a stretch
when lonely
walks away with
the kitchen knife

bent on things

one can

only imagine

it takes a certain
courage to see
the fingers
of the trees

entwined with
cloud and sky;

the sun slipping
assuredly away

quietly, a final breath
held with all the colors

you’ve ever held,

even briefly,

in your soul,

tiny pearls knotted
on a string, worthy of
a wedding or even

a funeral.

If you dare to,
you might just,

—on a day like that—

remember how
much you held hope

in the eyes of others,
your hands

unclenching,

to an
open palm

and your heart
perched for
flight

like

a bird.

Don’t miss another post: including #FridayPoems and From the Shaker: Best Investments in Sustainability.

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Laura Parker Roerden is the founding director of Ocean Matters and the former managing editor of Educators for Social Responsibility and New Designs for Youth Development. She serves on the board of Earth, Ltd. and is a member of the Pleiades Network of Women in Sustainability. She lives on her fifth generation family farm in MA.

 

 

Published by Laura Parker Roerden

Laura Parker Roerden shares a love of what nature can teach us. Writer, public speaker and supportor of youth to boldly know and save the wilds. She is the founding director of Ocean Matters and a fourth generation farmer and thinks today’s young people are reason to be hopeful about the many environmental problems facing us. She lives on a family farm in Massachusetts with her husband, three boys, and an assortment of fruit trees and farm animals.

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