Have you ever walked down to a beach,
spotless, no footprints, and felt reluctant to step?
What if seagulls were wheeling,
waves surging? Is it okay now?
And too, have you been alone at dusk, perhaps
on the edge of a forested ravine and felt yourself
dimming with the light? You put your hand onto a
pillow of moss. An ant stings. Are you awake now?
Or lain on your back, a grassy field, your eyes
slightly out of focus. The wind rustles the seed heads.
You sweep your hand, grasshoppers clack and whir
away. Are you alone now?
Does the shading tree feel protective, does the bird
in the bush sense a kindred presence? Or the bat
flapping through your rooms, is it still a part
of nature? Are you?
—
Mac Mestayer is an experimental physicist recently retired from Jefferson Lab, a national accelerator center for nuclear physics located in Newport News, Va. His research focused on the quark structure of protons and neutrons. His hobbies include hiking, bird-watching, wood sculpture and poetry. He lives In Williamsburg, Va. with his wife Kathi.
