I.
The coffee shop hopped
with bright wait staff
and cheerful locals
and earnest banter
about music and ways of seeing.
People moved
in the rhythms
of their expectations
and their relationships,
and one young woman
moved with the detached slow motion
of someone overcome
with an internal passion,
from which she looked out
and saw the world
as if it were a movie.

II.
On Lagoon Pond Road
we hear the whisper of last year’s grasses
and the warble of this year’s blackbirds,
while the strong north wind
that came in with rain last night
is sweetened by the strong sun,
and we walk in the sure comfort
of hands that know each other
while sand blows along the road
into my shoes.

III.
Home for breakfast
Five of us around the table
gobble popovers, and laugh —
A time like the brief passing sun
through a window pane
to bask in as long as it’s here.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 13, 2014