Walking the Land

Other people have loved this land before.

Signs of their presence,

in leaning posts and rusted fence wire

are unmistakable. And in the fact

that this is pasture — grass

must have been mowed last year

But something else calls out —

and echo of my footfalls,

generations old, perhaps,

And how this love that rises

from the land

must have captured others

They must have felt held,

just like this, in the sun, the air,

the solitude

and the quiet endurance

of all things living,

all these things that wait

for our full return.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 14, 2015