Photo by Wyxina Tresse on UnsplashWalking After
They strolled down old lanes lined with stone,
and through the university
along the river. He would see
the neighborhood she’d learned alone.
The things they had to notice then –
the distance back, his anxious pace,
the nearness of a decent place
to sit and rest in moments when
a twitch would flit across his chest,
which days before they would have thought
was nothing. Everything is fraught
with terror when one’s life is blessed
by saving. They stopped by a tree
with lichen spreading on its bark,
and wondered at the pattern – stark
and bold in its fragility.