Today's poem is by C.L. Downing

Buffalo Calf Woman
       

I dwell amongst the lush weathered trees
wearing decades of wind
on their gnarled branches and bent trunks.
My skin, and their bark only a whisper of seperation.
From the distance, I watch the ocean in its chameleon
forms, ranging from silvery teal to gunmetal gray
and all variations
of shifting, gliding light in between.
Each delicate step in the nearby dunes disturbs
and nudges the sea grass and sea oats, releasing
a lilt of perfume up like fresh cut hay.
I am intertwined and inseparable from it.
This world that is leavened with shocking beauty
and unrepentant violence of weather,
is my nearest kin.
I stare down the throat of 1,000 cherished days,
reliving any and all with untold joys and secret pleasures.
The sea is my emotional ballast and the counterweight
to a world that sometimes seems filled with madness.
I am the Child of the North Direction—I am called
The Shadow Walker and my place in the world
is the world itself.

Copyright © 2024 C.L. Downing All rights reserved
from To Walk the North Direction
Moonpath Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission