A Dry, Warm Breeze

I’m here, now.

Watch me-

Dutiful, cheerful, engaged, intelligent, fun –

Wholly involved in the present.

---

But take me back…

Give me a dry, warm breeze

A whiff of pine and manzanita

Vistas of harvested hay fields

(bales waiting to be bucked)

Glimpses of a winding green river

Gentle creaks of saddle leather

A hint of hot, honeyed frybread

Plucky guitar melodies of old, engrained tunes

Craggy hillsides dotted with starflower

Ice-cold streams through rolling mountains

The lullaby of a shushing forest

Even the sun’s particular angle in a northern California summer

or just a map

telling me I’ve come home...

---

Then watch me shatter

drowned in the deluge of memories,

Bittersweet, precious experiences I can never, ever

reclaim.