I didn't earn it at first.

Love was like wind.

I could sense it all around her,

but I could not see any use for it. 

 

Still, with patience, we walked

in tall stands of trees together.

Ones that had been there for so long, 

red-barked and towering with wisdom.

 

The branches quivered and stirred

as we passed their anchored homes.

Murmurs perhaps, of their discontent with me.

 

I reached out to feel the deep crevices

furrowed in the rough and weathered bark.

Counsel, it seemed, for a fool.

 

The Redwoods all around us whispered

through a restless and knowing breeze,

“Let her in and don’t look back.”