The wind is different tonight.
The leaves on the trees move easily.
Summer rain cleans the horses
grazing the wet grass in the pasture
across the road.
I saw lightning for the first time
in months. It looked like a ragged
tuning fork, and I felt the thunder
roll through my body.
Today, in a house a hundred miles
away I saw my father for the first
time in ten years.
He sat beside me with his bare shoulder
against mine as we looked at a map.
Years ago I would have wanted more to
happen and felt a disappointment,
but this meeting moved easily.
A part of me – the part that always wanted more
felt cleaned. The lightning comes
down in straight lines and then
separates into its tines. A tuning
fork is like that too.
We talked about mileage; then
he showed me the peas he’d grown in his
garden.
This is the most affection I am going
to get, I thought.
Today, this amount of affection was finally enough.
Very nice John, it spoke to me. Thanks