Flying Free

[Image by Tofino artist Joanna Streetly to celebrate
the upcoming release of Christine Lowther's book "My Nature"]

midnight sky
cloud-stippled
star-pocked
beautiful sky

big Dipper
outside my window
pouring sweet dreams
down my chimney

next morning comes
and I am
on the beach -
beautiful waves
horses' manes
white-plumed and prancing
in to shore
thin fog
creeping across the sand
like a ghost-veil
through which the outline
of the distant hills
blurs and softens
but can still be seen

I walk in the fog
as in a dream
from which I cannot
waken

four black crows
are having a party
with a bag of Reese's pieces
left unguarded
on a towel,
plucking the sweets
inside their gay
orange wrappers
with determined beaks,
like pudgy matrons
indulging in a treat
"just this once"

farther down the beach
a single crow
carrying an
orange-wrapped
surprise
hops down
onto the sand
in front of me
to have his
solitary feast

my friend
loves sweets
but soon
she will be gone

after leaving
her sickbed
I step out onto
the windy beach
once more,
gossamer clouds
as sheer as fairy wings
circling
like a kaleidoscope
as I stand
looking up
against this
whirling backdrop

two eagles
ride the current
with outstretched wings
from underneath
I can see
how the feathers join

will she ever see
the eagles fly
like this
again?

they represent
our two spirits
ever soaring
above
our circumstance

we will both
eventually
fly free

[At her funeral weeks later they played a song about the eagles,
and I remembered this day, bowed my head and cried.]