Today's poem is by Jean Nordhaus

When I listen, I can hear
       

a chainsaw chewing silence, children
shrieking in mock-fear, the robin's tedious
indecision: Yes, I will! No, I won't! And softer,
more complex, a thrumming that may be
the engine of time as it turns. Sometimes
I catch my whispered name along a street
or sense you rustling among squirrel-faced leaves,
or rumor, your small footprint, runs ahead
and I follow. My sorrow is no greater
than any other, and the stands of wheat
that ripple in garrulous wind, what are they
but the tiny hairs inside your ear?

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Copyright © 2024 Jean Nordhaus All rights reserved
from Five Points
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission