Just Go

Go to the other side.
Take the narrow bridge, the one

without the handrail.
Balance over the water's chorus

of voices and cross over
where the great oaks lean,

listening. Walk there
beside the wavering flicker

and you may hear, at last,
a separate voice, the call

of a child, or singing from the barn-
your brother's song of the fox hunt

in a run of hoofbeats and laughter,
as though light can be caught.

Keep following that light, even as
the water drains into cotton fields,

even though tonight the hounds
will whine in their dreams.

for Henry

©Jean Janzen