tonight

tonight i stopped
and i watched a spider dance in the sky overhead
spinning and weaving silken threads
invisible to my eyes

tonight i stopped
and watched the sky
turn pink and gold and dusky purple
on fire for a moment

tonight i stopped
and tasted summer
wild plums
picked moments before
matching the summer sunset


tonight i stopped
and laughed
as the juice ran down my chin and hands
turning all sticky sweet

tonight i stopped
and listened to the wind
blowing first through the elms
then setting the apple trees dancing

tonight i stopped
and heard the crunch of gravel
neighbors coming home
and the horses talking to one another
and the lonely duck on the pond making his beautiful awful honking quack
and the summer song of the crickets in the pasture

tonight i stopped
and watched the green apples and leaves
with their promises of autumn and pies
turn to shadows against the barely glowing sky
while searching for the first stars of the night

tonight i stopped
and swung in my hammock
hung between two apple trees
dreaming and counting the gifts of this life
and smiled in the moonlight
and thanked Him for it all

tonight i stopped
simply because i knew
that January will come
its frozen beauty and bare limbs blowing
the snow higher than my hammock lies
and i knew--
i would wish
that i had stopped tonight


(for ann~and her teaching me to see the gifts all around me and live fully in each moment)