We were there

We were there
We were there, once
We lay, shoulder to shoulder
On the sweet green grass
The soft shadow
Of the hazelnut tree
Cooled our faces
As we stared up at the leaves
We were there, then
We listened to the birds
We watched them fly
From branch to branch
Singing a mid-day song
We watched the cool breeze
Making patterns
In the shifting leaves above our heads

We were here
We sat in the starlight
Felt the cool, damp grass
Standing up between our toes
Staining our almost invisible feet
A beautiful, spring smelling
Dusky green
Reminding us of the summer behind us
We were here
Where the sunlight met the starlight
And the moon pulsed, gleaming
We heard the rustle of the leaves in the wind
The trickle of a stream down below
Running through the winding hills
Ending at a small pond where fish swam
And frogs jumped into crevices in the rocks
We were here
When the bushes in the trees rustled
A small, sloped nose poked out
When a herd of deer stepped out
Making their hesitating way to the stream
When they bent their soft necks to drink
When they drank their fill and lifted their heads
When, as one, they turned and ran into the trees
We watched them vanish
Leaving only the rustle of branches they had brushed
And the soft, clip-clop of hooves on dirt
Until it, too, vanished
Leaving only the starlight, the stream, the sweet wet grass
And us