Meadow

I am a meadow

The nomads sigh as they find me

Longing for more trees to meander

And become lost in

The hikers

Have picnics on my skin

Sometimes they even leave bread

For my friends

The remorseful and lost

Look at me with suspicion

They are confused why

I’m so bright and resilient

How my grass is so healthy

From soaking up the rays of heavens stairways

They are tangled

In ivy within the eerie forest

Of picture framed sky puzzle pieces

With large eyes

They capture me

For a dreary day

I am a stranger

To those who don’t wander

Who chain themselves

To a sofa

Who live only in the air conditioning

Whose lungs haven’t taken the time to meet

Sweet mountain air that tastes like

Fruit juice on a parched summer day

I am the anonymous

Cure for every pain

Every cancer

Every regret

Every lost joy

And if only you’d take the time to wander into the woods

To find me

Smother me

In your children’s fingers

As they caress my grassy hair

And kicking sneakers as they play tag on my back                    

Or you could discover me alone

Shower me in your secrets,

Your soft singing voice

Or even just your carbon dioxide encased breath

Could make me flourish

I’ll send you smiles in cool breezes

When sweat drips down your spine

I am a friend

But all you do is

Steal my canopy trees

That make me the very thing I am

I trusted your ancestors

As they snuggled in my arms

On winter nights

And never forgot to feed me

When they fed themselves

Now I’m useless

I am not a meadow

I am an office building

With asphalt skin

And I’m sorry that if you fall

My grass won’t be there to catch you

Your skin will be torn like fabric

My dew won’t be there to wash away the blood

You’ll wear black leather shoes

As you stomp along my back

I’ll miss the embrace of your toes

And the way flowers grew in your footsteps

I am not an open field

I am a concrete structure

That can’t kiss your ears

With the words of the wind

To tell you the trail is over

Now I am the trail

To utter oblivion

I can’t cure the remorseful

Because now

I create them

Liv R. Winnicki