At the intersection with the half-sunken red barn
Where drivers kept missing the turn
Falling into the river
Covered with silt and green water
A dented utility pole marks the spot
We walked, you and I
Running in a zig zag
You pointing out the moss growing up through the cracked yellow line
Cottonwoods grown bigger than they were ever meant to
Resisting cracking under their own weight
Horses and chickens, behind an electric fence, but still
Finding a bouquet of flowers left just for us
I can imagine us being happy here
A quiet life on an quiet road
In a blue foursquare looking out over the river
As it has for a hundred years
We’d grow tarragon and lavender and mint
We’d have a pair of donkeys and a hive of bees
And watch people who work from home walk by
On their daily constitutionals
The only traffic remaining
The tract homes encroaching on the old farms
Amazon moving ever closer
If we squint we can crop the frame
But on the FEMA maps
It’s all blue
Floods are coming
And will take the land back
Our brief time buried
Under silt and green water
In good company at last
For AKL