This Wind Though

It’s the last day of National Poetry Month, and the wind has been howling here in Boulder for three days. It’s been an obnoxious wind making me wonder if it’s worth it to live here. In honor of the wind and National Poetry Month, I’ll share a draft of a poem I wrote on a windy day a couple of months ago.

This Wind Though

I live in a place where the wind has a name
and grows wild
whistling tunes through the door
tossing mats swings or bins to the side
shaking bird feeders and tangling chimes

This wind means to snatch your hat
and laugh as it carries it,
watching you chase with your arms reaching

It will slap
right in the eye
with hair turned to a sharp whip

This wind can shatter your car glass
leave you stunned
while you lean into it to stay on your feet,
dipping like an embrace you don’t want to give

This wind though

This wind

Is the one you love
bringing warmth overnight
shoving aside the freeze,
dragging in air 35 degrees warmer
(From where?
where does your wind find this air?
how does your wind convince the warmth to follow and obey?)

This wind though

Is the wind that sways the aspen leaves
those beloved shimmering ovals of gray green
that mesmerize and cast love spells on visitors
this is the wind that makes love to those trees, the quaking trees

This wind though

Too is the one that bends the grasses in a way that breaks your heart,
the grasses set against that blue blue sky
in a way that makes you want to run through the field,
lie down and cry tears that belong to the world

This wind with its name
that swirls around your mouth
that forms on your tongue and lips like a kiss
the name said just for the pleasure of saying it
hearing it

Shin ook

Chin ook

Chinook

–Copyright 2014, Jessica Vance, all rights reserved