for Sean and Jordan
Late summer, generous and merciful
in shady hours, a hike with my brother.
The trail was a stegosaurus backed knoll,
steep, warm and always a little farther.
We lost our carried water and we watched
as it fell, tumbling over rocks, slipping
through the yellow hands of the rabbit brush.
We picnicked and tried to laugh but keeping
eyes and ears toward the sound, we did not hear
the bottle’s end. It fell beyond our reach.
So it seemed to us as water is clear
that ours landed deep and dark as our grief.
But then the liquid song of goldfinches,
a quick dart of light like joy in glimpses.
