✨ Daily, Under My Breath

I wing a small charm ...

Daily, Under My Breath

when my husband leaves
the house I wing a small charm
after him in a language

I learned & relearned:
La terre est très belle.
        Mon amour, ici avec toi.

Do the dead press against
the living like wind
billowing a shower curtain

like the warm ghost-weight
of a sleeping pet on the pillow
after they depart?

Do they visit this way?
Like that?
Or as a scrub willow

breaking its branches all
night against the siding scraping
out a message—

         The earth is very beautiful.
My love, here with you.

Was it just last week
we were hiking through a meadow
carpeted in lupine?

         Please, may we be lucky.

—Katharine Whitcomb 

From Habitats: Poems, Poetry Northwest Editions, Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of the poet. Photo by Mercedes Mehling, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.