I Have Walked Alone
by Theodora Goss

I have walked alone
between the rain and the rain,
unable to explain.

I have walked alone
where the sun touched the tops of the trees
and a breeze
ruffled the grasses at my feet,
thinking: it has been sweet
but it is done.

And down the muddy lane,
listening to a chickadee’s two notes,
unable to explain

what it all meant, even
whether it mattered.
Meanwhile, the sun
shone through the tops of the trees,
red and yellow and brown,
as though through an autumnal
cathedral window.

Suddenly, the birds broke forth,
robin and nuthatch and oriole,
into a hymn.

And it was enough
without more, without
an explanation.

(The image is Girl in Thorns by Emma Florence Harrison.)