AFTER YOU WALK THE CAMINO

 

AFTER YOU WALK THE CAMINO

You’re a pilgrim forever.

Notes in my back pocket with my handkerchief.

We all took a pair of Maria’s socks after she died.

Walking with Karen

Sudden hailstones in sunshine

Walking with Mary Oliver in her thirst.

Honor the work of a caregiver

When she was the first lady of California

The Journey upended her life.

When he gave me the walking stick

he said Jesus for sure. We’re both reporters.

When you’re dreaming the other

you become the other.

Her furrowed brow, queer and handsome.

Queer comes into the dictionary in 1513.

Connecting to the words of Emily Dickinson

I almost missed the rhyme.

There were some long nights in North Dakota.

This is everything I had in my pocket.

There was a bit of fudging only because

There remained a couple of fragments from an earlier prayer.

Jim Bodeen

9 March 2024