it was turning late fall & the sweetgums started shedding. the snow geese said their goodbyes & the widowed heron spoke soft prayers into the pond water. i remember it was the evening, when all the sudden it started to pour down heavy—drowning the fallen burr balls. where the roads went sigogglin & where the speed signs lost their meaning, that’s where i found you. laying under a naked sweetgum, half asleep, half dreaming. i called up to the traveling snow geese, hoping they could see your dreams from way up there, & they called back to me. they told me you were dreaming of the endless mountains. of pitching up a tent with no fire. of using only each other for heat. & slowly, in your dreams, you became a child of sweetgums, wanting nothing more than to fall & be gently reborn.