why do distant mountains
fade from forest green to blue?
wandering the woods unafraid
basking in the wildlife abundant
questions of what and who and how
grown into every tree and dirt path
back in time, this place doesn’t change
from the family photo albums
these rural homes invite imagination
the quiet is restless, eager
to be met with stories
read or written, however you feed it
it will be met with approving quiet
and a hunger for more
history is hidden in peeling blue paint
and framed embroidery
nostalgia lives in the spice-sweet smell
of woodsmoke sewn in the quilts
patched in this house
they hold their scent back in the city
just for a moment
and carry their swaddled sleeper
out the chimney
and into a sky of stars