My ipod serves up love songs on the plane

I listen and my empathy

follows the threads of passion

(threads like water veins

upon the land below,

the rivers, lakes, the melting snow,

the cities clustered there, along the roads)

I feel the longing and the pain,

I feel the exaltation —

my spirit hums an all-embracing chord

that circles round the threads

and drops beneath,

enfolding them in overarching blue.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 24, 2019