in meadows

What you need in a meadow
is perspective, a view that includes
the blue dragonfly hovering above the flow of river,
the slender-fingered willow leaves
trailing already-nostalgic farewell
to the water murmuring by,
the red mud on your shoe,
the rusted barbed wire
where someone thought he owned something,
the haze of woods,
the sun too fierce to gaze into,
the oak whose strength will outlive you,
and the knowledge that no matter
whose hand you hold, you see only
through your own two eyes,
and will never live
precisely this moment
again.

by Alma Marie Rolfs