Time Window

This piece is offered in response to visual prompt Mag 24 at Magpie Tales.




Time Window

•

In the solitude
of my assisted exile
the window above me
frames a grey
and barren sky

but with eyes closed
I see home
of long ago
alive with morning

the scurry of creatures
warmed by summer

I hear nature
in splendid voice

the chuff
of tree’d red squirrel

the song
chirp
and trill of birds

chickadee
goldfinch
western bluebird
and others

fly
flutter
and flit

cracking black-oil sunflower seeds
that spill from feeders

a red-tailed hawk
calls
from atop a Sitka spruce
swaying
in the crisp blue sky

the muffled belling of a deer
wandering the safety of old-growth
whispers
through the foothills

the distant bark
of a neighbor’s dog
echoing the basin
up along our stream
reminds me
we have friends nearby

my wife’s
gentle laughter
validates the friendship

her tender smile
validates our love

the rustle of leaves
stirred by the breeze
wafts through the valley

smartly punctuated
by the staccato
of conifer cones
that fall
from time to time
wrested free by chickaree
and chipmunk
chattering high in Douglas fir
busy with their forage

wap wap wap

they bounce off our roof
striking the ground

closely followed
by the scamper
of their liberators
crunching their way
to the heart-meat of the cone
the delicacy
that elicits this furious industry

drifting in the window
intoxicating fragrances

cedar
pine
fir

lily
rose
lilac

grasses
loam
and more

a rich
earthy bouquet

caught in my reverie
I breathe in
deeply
to suddenly remember

I am alone
carefully banished
to this forgotten cloister

sobered
I exhale
and do not open my eyes

a solitary tear
escapes

• • •

rob kistner © 2010

24 thoughts on “Time Window”

  5. lovely just lovely and sad too that you aren’t in your chosen environment. You must live or at one time did in the Northwest perhaps as I hear all those critter and bird noises too.

    Reply

  6. Thank you Kathe, for your kind words – but this free verse is fiction. My wife and I are blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest, now for 20 years. I was describing the actual surroundings of my home in this piece, as though they were the memories of an aged widower, confined begrudgingly to assisted living…

    …rob

    Reply

  8. “carefully banished/ to this forgotten cloister” is one of those lines that just stops you.

    You set such a scene, the real and the imagined, the remembered and the lost, and not.

    Reply

  12. Dea Rob: The remembrances of love captured in the the wilds and the synapses abound with nature’s evoking sensuality.Aand the core of the squirrel’s nut? The heart of the matter. How I remember those squirrels and their nuts! Washington State sounds like heaven scent! I guess I feel as confined to my bed as the old man you write about today. It’s called blogger addiction. I think I’ll go for a walk today and enjoy the love that is all around me and maybe in the woods to lose that part of the ego. Thank-you for this comfort albeit sad in part not whole! We’re still Winners All!

    Reply

    1. I am glad this engaged you Jane, and the state of Washington is wonderful, as is Oregon, where I live. I spend time a bit every day in the abundant nature here in Oregon — and I applaud you for deciding to get outside, it is where the soul lives…

      …rob

      Reply

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