Pastoral -- "Surface Tension"

I’m creeping my way down the steep hill,
an escape from the rotting dorm hall
I chose to live in; too far from home.
Past the lush Sycamores, trying to get a glimpse of the majesty of the Potomac River.
My heart pounding a beat
to an almost forgotten verse.
The elders mark the years on an autumn afternoon.
My sky is shared with the clouds and beaming sun.
My song is “The Truth About Heaven,” the instant
Ben Jorgenson sings everything I can not say.
Close my eyes and his music takes me back home to my love.
Open my eyes and I realize I’m miserable up here without you.
I think of Bob Ross’s Happy Trees
and the dap-dap-dapple of colors.
Burning oranges and fiery crimson,
the trees embracing the earth,
reflections of themselves in each sparkle of the ravine.
Then blinded by the intensity of the sun
captured on the canvas.

I come to the edge of the water, minnows
rise to the surface.  I whisper into the warmth of the sun:
It rains in Heaven all day long.
A yearning to live with youth, forever.
An aged rock, smoothed by the weather, I sit upon.
I know cancer took Ross before I ever saw his show,
Although it felt as if he was always on live,
And many people still believe he is.
Does he even know he is gone?
I am embraced by the sun’s beams,
but wishing to not be here, alone.
The pale, airy clouds in the sky
and the dirge of the river, keep me company for now.
I count the days.
Many days left in this semester to miss my love.
I drown my sorrows in the rush of the Potomac,
The glisten on the surface.