City Life

1.

2.

Last night I went for a walk intending to watch the sunset. I got a late start and when walking over the hill into the canyon on a dirt trail above the South Fork of the Palouse River, I found the sun had already set. It was that momentary pause between day and night when boundaries disappear and colors blend. I find a beauty in this pause and lose myself in the conversation where for a moment all are talking and listening in silence.

As the darkness deepened I remained lost when the night conversation began with the calling of Crickets and Katydids. In the pause and into the night there were no boundaries or a sense of time, a felt a hint of something beyond myself. After returning home I thought about the conversations I participate in daily with my neighbors, driving from one place to another weaving from lane to lane, and those I spend the day with. Two questions came to mind; where does this feeling go when walking through the pause from night into day and how can I carry it to silently participate in the day’s conversations?

Palouse hills echo
rimmed in light years moonlight gray
coyotes yip-yipping

1.

Rolling from the zucchinis she was holding, a green pepper dropped to the floor.

It bounced and rolled to a stop and I bent over to pick it up.

The green pepper is now in my hand, after leaving the hand that she used to pick it up from its place on the produce shelf.

Placed there by the hand of the produce stocker who pulled it from a box placed there by another’s hand.

Picked by the hand of another from a plant in a field grown from a seed planted by another’s.

I stand up and take a few steps, “Excuse me, I believe your dropped this,” my hand handing it back to hers.

a Chickadee sings
up high in a Cottonwood
swirling smoky air

2.