The Good News (inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh)

The Good News (inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Moon Creek will sing
whether we’re on the earth
or under it

the blue sky
will get bluer
without contrails

the twisted path that brought us here
today lets me make friendship offerings
to birds and foxes
whose bright beating hearts remind me
we’re not alone

my mother, planning for her death
in a place where I can’t hold her hand
smiles bravely, assures my sister and me
she’s lived her life of service
without regret

now there is so little left
in the way of importance
I sit on the side of the creek
while the snowy banks run to water
doing nothing
only being
only listening
when a mountain chickadee
who has heard nothing of the end of days
flits to a flat rock in the channel
then wades in
delightedly splashing clean cold water
all over her plump fluffed self

it takes a long time
for her to stop savoring the sensation
she jumps from one branch to the next
shaking all her feathers loose
bustling with the busy joy
of water sun and wind

and I am still here to see her
and you are still here to tell