For Natalie

What is your favorite emotion?

While I’m gone

cover yourself in stories

that make people stop and admire

in butterflies and ocean waves

in your favorite flowers

Write it all down

in languages foreign and fowl,

enough to make my Granny cringe

meet me at the house

Where all the dust

on all the photos

blows away

tell me everything,

and I’ll tell you

when that album is freshly made

The mountain knows when a call is answered

knows how to love its own

Where hints of mint & basil & milkweed

summon butterflies & fireflies

in & out of season

The willow had never seen

such tight grasps on arms

not in its shadows’ thickets

Knew only of returning

from the storms of August

Their willow remained planted in place

as we all are

until we aren’t

When I arrived so too did the peaches

and the wineberries

and as I turned to leave

so too did the pears and the apples

And on they moved,

the willow never saw

tattoos in water color, lip gloss on teeth

tears and hugs and laughter circling in fives

for sunsets’ vibrance even to

the distracted mind

three climbed onto the roof

as film developed

And for one moment

all the edges of our stories met

lined in reds and greens and blues

danced between open eyes

hummed inside the brilliant minds

of those who dream outside of dreams

under the influence of meteor showers

and lightning in blue skies

And for one moment

contentment occupied me

it laid comfortably on her skin

as another story to tell

as if to answer the question: