Thin Place (Wedding Poem)

My husband would rather watch the swoop of a kestrel
So this is for him

Our neighbor said something was waiting to die
Vultures were riding the thermals
But it figures
He had just taken his puppy
back to the pound


Ugly birds on invisible currents
I stopped during a walk around the circle
And watched them for a few minutes
Skimming tops of elderly tulip trees

I thought of a crow in Yosemite
Imagine wing beats like dying helicopters
His pine cones fell through the night
Bombing our sight and the bear-proof food box

I thought of Alamogordo in May
Watching you run through the wind of a thundercloud
The gypsum was damp between toes
Some one said it was radioactive

I thought of wind in the pines of Walnut Creek
Silence of a stone fireplace
Lone on a hill
Surrounded by high grass and
Periwinkle

And all these windy thoughts
Lead to the gray day in October
When
By a river (which wasn't dry)
And under a maple (which hadn't turned)
We created our own sacred spot
Instead of leaving
To find one