The Returned Response Received


My brother
the
Whirling dervish of the meet and greet
He is fearlessly social
and interactive with people
Far more than me
Being around his openness and honesty
unconsciously prompts me to assimilate
I am certain that he isn't trying
to bring me out of my shell
Yet to my surprise
it inevitably happens
This is a good thing.
I'm an introvert at heart
Searching for an opening to make a point
Pawing cautiously at the spoken ground
Hoping to turn over a rock for a conciliatory nugget
He plows ahead
Splicing his ground with verbal thrusts
Probing the air for the returned response received
A study in contrasts
becomes a melding of our two styles
Whole in a way that
singularly we are not
It happens so effortlessly
I don't realize the transformation
has taken place until much later
in the quiet reflection of my car
on the long drive home

Thank you.

Thank you.

When the Poplar tree bends in the wind
I think of you
As Autumn leaves fall
Ten cycles to the ground
I think of you
The chill in the air
On the Ozark hillside
Tells me
You didn't mean to
You didn't mean to die
On a windy day
The day will come
When I won't think of you
But my heart will beat its last
And the wind will never blow again

Run...with all that is holy within you, run.