Earth Day: Evening walk on the Serpentine Dike

Dusk on the dike

Open your nostrils

Receive the fragrance of burst willow buds
Breathe spring-steeped air.

Tread lightly:

Hear your own soft footfalls
Feel them reverberate from soles to crown.

Overhear the cadenced conversations of geese

Flying low over the marshlands
Whoosh of wings audible against air.

Catch the splash of squalling ducks

As they swim, see the perfect vee behind each
Traced on the glass-still water.

Scent coming rain

Feel the first hesitant droplets touch your hair.

Sense elusive memories

Connecting this walk with years of other walks.

Feel beneath the feet

The uneven shape, the wild mud and grass-clad body
Of Earth our Mother – familiar, beloved.