Cumbria: gentle sound made by a quick-flowing stream
The traffic always was just outside the bank of windows
and down and could be heard
more than seen for the trees that spring and early summer.
We would lie in the bed pushed to the sill and look out on
only leaves that I swear were yellow and catch
what sounded beneath their susurration
and not want to rise to go anywhere—not east on the parkway to
the highway, to the shift that felt endless.
We would turn. You would turn. I would turn—.
Shadows of branches cast on the one wall and sway.
KELLY R. SAMUELS is the author of the full-length collection All the Time in the World (Kelsay Books) and two chapbooks: Words Some of Us Rarely Use and Zeena/Zenobia Speaks. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work appearing in The Massachusetts Review, RHINO, Court Green, The Tusculum Review, and The Pinch. She lives in the Upper Midwest.
