these days I speak of myself in the past tense
writing about yesterday knowing tomorrow
is no more than mist crawling toward violet mountains
I think of days when this weather meant you
were not so far away the light changing
so fast I believe I can see you turning a corner
the rain comes in smelling of pine and moss
a kind of brazen intrusion on the careful seeds of spring
I pay more attention to details these days
saving the most trivial until I sort them for trash
or recycle a luxury I've come to know only recently
you have never been too far from my thoughts
despite the newborn birds and their erratic songs
the way they tilt their heads as if dowsing for the sun
the way they repeat their singular songs
over and over as if wishing for a different outcome


About this poem
"I live in the rain forest. Torrential or mizzle, the sound of rain snares your body's rhythms, and its smells prompt reverie. This poem is one of those moments."
-Colleen J. McElroy

About Colleen J. McElroy
Colleen J. McElroy is author of "Blood Memory" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016). McElroy is professor emerita at the University of Washington and lives in Seattle.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 Colleen J. McElroy. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate