hungry, needy

(In the tradition of Abbie Huston Evans’ “ The Back-road”)

perhaps i needed something vast

teeming with life, future, present, past

this morning on my balcony

serenaded by cicada symphony

perhaps i needed

forest, breathing

ocean, churning

reminder that this longing

calls for a deeper kind of loving

perhaps i needed mountain massive

enduring, patient, steady

assurance that i, too, can sit with what is heavy

perhaps i needed river winding

sometimes, slowly

sometimes, wildly

always changing

a lesson for my body

if you had told me i needed fullness

a life, God

i should’ve nodded “yes”

and yes, too, to fantastic needs like these

a need for vastness, spread out, an ocean

a need for steadiness, solid, a mountain

a need for change, a slick-skinned river

blind bottom hungers

undreamed-of hungers