Summer days,
and if you want a shade garden,
if you want refreshing honeysuckle breeze
to float through cedar,
if you want the cooling
of eighty years of standing
through moisture nurtured northwest nights,
come join us — you are welcome

If you want to be lifted
in the bright bubbling release
of knowing you are loved,
and that none of your halting efforts
and unfulfilled resolutions
make any difference —
nothing held over your head —
we are here to love you — you are welcome

And if you want to feel your roots
growing thick and strong
in the rich, dark humus of home,
curling like toes in cool, damp sand,
kissed by mycelium,
if you want to know your purpose
is established and entwined with many others,
come join us — you belong.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2016