All Along the Junction Trail

Sandra Lindow
1st Place

For Michael

Maybe any word rhymes with any other word
And more than any word rhymes with silences.
— William Stafford

Monarchs rise like stained glass song.
We have walked this trail together.
What rhymes with the silence of your absence?
Bee balm slant rhymes pale pink to rose.

We have walked this trail together.
Red Admiral warms wings on wild rhubarb.
Bee balm reiterates lavender to rose.
White water dazzles, staying and leaving.

Red Admiral lifts wings on wild rhubarb,
Light glinting between sumac and poplar.
White water dazzle, leaving and staying.
Retaining wall crumbles in broken stone.

Light grinning from sumac to poplar,
A bench shimmers overlooking the rapids,
Retaining wall stumbles in broken stone,
Osprey swoops past, clutching a minnow.

A bench silvers, regarding the rapids,
Phoebe, “see me,” up in box elder,
Osprey flaps past, clutching a shimmer,
Light dopplers on popular leaves.

Phoebe, “feel me,” answers from basswood,
Words woven in nests of silence,
Talk dopplers through cottonwood leaves,
What rhymes with the silence of absence?

Words woven in nests of silence,
Weaving rye grass from summers’ past tense,
What rhymes with the silence of absence?
Memories, rock at Red Cedar’s edge,

Weaving dry grass for summers hence.
What rhymes with the silence of your absence?
Memories rise at Red Cedar’s edge.
Butterflies rock like stained glass song.

What rhymes with the silence of presence?
Butterflies rhyme like stained glass song.
We have walked this trail together.
You have been here all along.