Strangers

There were two ones wandering alone
and found the hemlock forest and followed
the sounds of the brook at the end of summer
and found each other and sat on a rock and talked
and talked and meanwhile a wind came up
and leaves and brush gathered around them
and raised a charming shelter and they continued to talk
and their arms went round each other and they talked and kissed and loved each other in this protected space
and the autumn came and the winter and they loved
their little hut and listened to the wind and when
the snows came they ventured out and gathered in
the loveliness of the woods to their little hut
and were warm and happy in each others arms
and they continued to talk when the spring came
and the woods became alive with birdsong
But  then the summer came again and the two felt
an unfamiliar space between them and one
was drifting away on the gentle summer breeze
and th other felt alone and helpless and walked
out of their rustic shelter and back into the hemlock forest and the other took another route
and they could hear each from their separate paths
the hut dissolving again into the floor of the woods
and pieces finding their way down the stream bed
again filling with melted snow water..but they continued
to feel each other in the new summer air and leave notes
to each other on random bits of bark and soon the sky
and earth took over and they each on their own
laid claim now to a life of unpredictable wonder.