"I Went by the Water" (a poem)

What a week! In the last seven days, I've attended a funeral and a baptism, lost a whole day to a debilitating migraine, and watched our next president get sworn into office.

Everyone seems to be posting about Trump's inauguration, or the women's march in DC, or how unhappy they are about one or the other. . . and honestly I'm just so sick of politics, I can't stand it anymore.

As an antidote to all this, here's a poem I wrote over the summer on a solo hike--an uber-awesome and all-too-rare thing when you are a mom of three under three! I remember the day was hot, near 80, and I was sweating as I hiked around the lake. My husband was home watching the kids. I'll post some pictures from that day too, if I can find them.

I Went by the Water
7/10/16 

I went by the water to sit and listen.
To open my ears and let the truth come flooding in, 
suffocating my fears with its thick rippling drops.

But there were airplanes in the sky,
Screaming over my head,
And their engines were louder 
than the butterfly's song. 
I could not hear the frog's heartbeat 
nor his suspicious blinks 
eyeing me half-submerged 
in the muddy shore.

And the airplane's wings were stronger 
than those of the dragonfly buzzing, 
the seagulls shrieking, 
the oriole soaring, 
the crane gliding 
into the waves like a blade through flesh.

And every time I thought, 
"There! 
A flicker of silence! 
That's where the truth is. . . ."
It was a mirage, 
shattered by the foolish roar of another jetplane, 
carrying executives to important meetings, 
shuttling vacationers to five-star hotels... 
and utterly crushing the whisper of the lake, 
the tiptoe of the squirrel, 
the hush of the grass 
twinkling in the breeze.