Let’s Be
                                                by Melanie Choukas-Bradley          

Our powerful loving selves
Not shrunken and bitter

It’s a choice
Although we forget

Under the tsunami
Of electronic misfires

And real war
Post-Covid isolation

And all the other loose and missing
Connections of today

Let’s remember how
As Rumi says

There are a thousand ways
To kneel and kiss the ground


* * * * *

Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a naturalist and award-winning author of seven nature books, including City of Trees and A Year in Rock Creek Park. Her book, Wild Walking—A Guide to Forest Bathing Through the Seasons will be released in June. Melanie began writing poetry during the pandemic and had the good fortune to discover Beate Sigriddaughter’s Writing in a Woman’s Voice. The site has featured many of her poems, including “How to Silence a Woman,” “If I have loved you,” “The Water Cooler,” and “Muddled Grief,” which won Moon Prizes. Her poetry has also appeared in New Verse News.