Our Ever Green

Before supper the sky turns a dusty sage.

Sometimes the truth disappears behind the mounting storm for a little bit. Fiction's savvy manteau becomes too close to call – too warm to let fall.

In the heart of purging today, I took notice of my talent for giving things away. I've kept almost nothing, having passed along gifts, money, and most mementos. At times there is guilt in the moment of letting go, but it swells and dissipates like a stone's ripple plunked into the frog pond. I slipped out of my clothes to try on the creamy silken robe reserved for my wedding night twenty years ago. I've never worn it, yet it has remained folded in the back of my bottom bureau drawer. What does giving it away change?

The neighbor kid who lives behind us screams: I hate you! And his mother screams it back. Sometimes he and his brothers play war games with Airsoft sniper weapons and terrible words. Overshot pellets and cancerous offenses amplify the pending the storm.

Green can mean a lot things.

Green Car Motel, green sky before all hell breaks loose, green with envy. . .

Green is Michigan's color of renewal and it is also the steadfast intensity of her evergreen.

Our ever green.

Alexis wins a scholarship with her essay and in one draft she has made more money with her words than I ever will.

The grass is always greener on the other side; I know better than that. Light plays and dances and deceives.

As the rain begins again, it taps the leaves, seemingly one by one. I always think of that scene from Bambi when he is curled up tight next to his mama, and he experiences rain for the first time. Each drop that falls is another note in a gathering musical shower.

A rabbit nibbles on the leaves of the hostas I just transplanted. Green thumb, green in the gills, God's green earth.

The way rainfall dampens the riotous clamoring of spring nights – I love you for that. Osiris nods and with his blessing, I tend to sleep and to the earth and to those who choose to grow. Words or no words. Green or black. The journey of a thousand mossy spores in one – simple – step.