friends walking
new harmony

if we could walk
along
the gravel or something else
packed-
down until they get
to concrete
set
down perfected paths

without air un-gray
but with an interest in the clouds
whose
shapes we tacitly
acknowledge and with the part that
doesn’t have to
hear
can suss the shapes because

our time is easy and we define
companionable silence
that
we’ve been told about
through sorts
of
books

and so crunching go our way while
underneath
small sounds are radiated
into hearing or
more
silence
or
adding to the satisfying bank of noises
small
at our minds’ disposal
in this congenial time
the gift of that
and
us
our tranquil knowing of each other

and is this why the paintings in which
movement
is
nonetheless evoked
we
still call
the life still

and is this romantic
for we’ll have to
talk
now and then to keep things open
and
available over details
and maybe over
bigger
things that rise up
time
to time

yet for long stretches
counting
also
leaning into things we might keep
quiet with the outside or to
put up with
of
noises from our world even
the harmonious

though
quiet has its harmony
as well

c l couch


photo by Nigel Cohen on Unsplash
plus taking the photograph