for Alexa

Far from me
you are happy
Happy in white snow
boots and mittens
you knitted yourself, happy
without me
the singed toes,
you, the frosty
nose of a continent

Picture me, happy
(it’s true!) in slapping
huaraches and long
sleeves in the heat
dancing with dirt
devils and wood-
smoke philosophies

What you may not
know, Dear One
is how often
I am drawn to the light
behind the sun-
set, not the dangerous view,
but, the overlooked splendor
of our commencement

Beneath the nimbus of the day
tinted with epiphanal twilight
I think of you

© 2013 Abby Smith, Writer