Linda Gregg: "Being"

The woman walks up the mountain
and then down. She wades into the sea
and out. Walks to the well,
pulls up a bucket of water
and goes back into the house.
She hangs wet clothes.
Takes clothes back to fold them.
Every evening she crochets
from six until dark.
Birds, flowers, stars. Her rabbit lives
in an empty donkey pen. The sea is out
there as far as the stars.
Always quiet.
No one there. She may not believe
in anything. Not know
what she is doing. Every morning
she waters the geranium plant.
And the leaves smell like lemons.

"Being" by Linda Gregg, from In the Middle Distance: Poems. © Graywolf Press, 2006.

Photography credit: "Old Metal Watering Can," watercolor painting by RoseAnn Hayes (originally color).