a vivid dream in the clearing where our house sits:

chopping wood with a houseguest
and the kids come by fighting about who should get the green toothbrush holder and i ask them: if this was your last day together what would you do", and bonk them on the heads.
they run off goofing and yelping
and the houseguest asks me what i would do.

i smile and ask what he would do
he asked me first
but i say my answer won't be swayed

he would fly through towers of new egypt
dancing in the streets riding the panic of civilization
and shrink to be greater than the entirety of our galactic metropolis
i don't remember what he said
he said it quickly and with his eyebrows slightly distracting me
and i told him, he reminded me of myself

"i would do this
what i'm doing now
be splitting the wood
and go on a walk with my family
off in a direction we'd never taken before
and go to a sacred place
i might ask you to watch the kids for an hour so that i could be alone with my husband
one last time to get dirt in the folds of our ears under our fingernails in our hair
then we would come home and we would all make dinner together
bread and wine and everything in the house
and we'd build a fire
madrona pine and oak and smell at the sky
make the stars sweat

i would want to ride my bike once more, too
maybe that i would do just by myself
in the afternoon between my two hikes

and i would like you to stay