Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
Issue #13, January, 2000 : -- -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10  11 -12 -13
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Richard Peabody

                 

Reasons to Live

A Meadow behind the red and white house
opens up to sunlight and a teenager--
maybe sixteen in a purple T-shirt
with a heart as big and noisy
and unforgettable as Kaaterskill Falls--
swings in a hammock to the rhythm
of their own quivering Walkman.

It is good to stand just so
and contemplate their beauty
just out of reach and unobtainable
like a son, or daughter, or an unrequited love.

Their purple shirt matches the
meadow flowers, and you,
lazy in the humid embrace of late
August, have forgotten what
you were on about. Happy
to be alive and simply standing
in such a special place.

Perhaps you have always stood
poised at this exact moment,
sunlight turning to shadow.
Perhaps now, you, too,
will find a reason to get up tomorrow,
relax, and continue your journey.


Copyright © 2000 Richard Peabody.

About the poet.

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Issue #13, January, 2000 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.