Sky Piece IIJenny Highland, friend and fan

for Thomas Chapin

Wind is all there is today of sky wind and great geese arrowing the air as if it were early autumn
as if it were the day that we first met.
and all I can or need to remember
is your lips poised on the flute’s silver brim, cheeks working like bellows
as that sound kept unfurling
vivid and reckless as water over stones…
with your circling wind, we closed our eyes
and could almost believe you had no need for breath—
We thought you could sustain that note indefinitely…

Indeed
you put so much life into each short sound
should we now be surprised ?
Yet even through this hard and final year
you put these stagnant hospitals to shame,
startled those walks alone with the
noise and color of your fading breath.

The air unfurls a low note that goes on and on;
the wind’s endless breath breaks over me
and the startling cry of geese, harsh and vital
Roofing me to this world you swallowed whole.
I tilt my face to watch those great wings pass
and search beyond for some assuring peace
within
the sky you have become.