Us In Spring

We would go there
in Fall
to see the colors in the leaves
Often
the chill would have us raise our flannel shirt collars

In Winter
her cheeks showed red
like the last leaves of the season
we liked to pack lunch
and eat our picnic beneath the aspen and cedars of the river below

Rain and wind would pelt our faces in Spring
under half-gray half-blue skies
we carried on downriver
like an eagle
migrating to sweet words whispered in the wind

The key to Summer, she would say
rests in our breath
in our touch
soft like the sounds of our river
timeless