i couldn't let poetry month slip away without
at least 1 poem by jim bennett:









walking on the mesa

we walked out here
across the mesa
in the brilliance of night
and on the darkest of days
saw it crisp with frost
wet with dew
covered in cloud
and bright with summer
heard the birds
and the crickets
saw the flowers bloom
watched them
turn brown and die

now the first shoots
of the spring crocus's
are emerging in clumps
erupting
through the dark earth
the wintered trees
in-bud again
the cold air
once more
pregnant
with summer

and all this still happens
even though

you are no longer here
to see it