Hazel Eyes

Poetry Month 6th

my dogs will only eat popcorn
if it is thrown
arching
into their mouth from the
hand of someone who loves them

I wake to a missed kernel in the middle of the
kitchen floor

how many times have I rejected a gift
because it cost the giver nothing

this time last year
I was in Sri Lanka
holding a banana in an
outstretched hand
fingertips touching the trunk of an elephant in the wild
the most mesmerizing roadside surprise I’ve ever
rounded a corner and seen in full view
the month before that
in Spain I stood on the rock crumbling side
of a Moorish castle ruin
off the beaten path where few tourists waylay or pause
the gift half in the journey to get there

what if we never travel again
what if our best lives will be told in stories
B.C. and A.C.
Before Corona
what if the greatest journey we’ll take now
is an effortless deep dive of into the arms of a familiar lover
that costs the giver nothing