Hidden

When she sits down to think
And lets her mind wander
(Or even when she doesn’t and it walks anyway)
A place it returns to
Could never be fonder
Is a valley she was taken
On a crisp autumn day.

An afternoon of bridge strings
And chasing the birds
While everyday thoughts were whisked through the trees
Her mind here was safer
Thinking in thirds
Scratching lead rhyming
In a brainstorm of leaves.

In glitter gold light
Falling like feathers
She’s evading day counting: like strokes on a tally
Escaping the waking
And changing the weather,
She’s humming a cuckoo,
And minding the valley.

Twice in her eyes,
But lodged in her heart
The valley of beautiful dreaming is dancing
When almost goodbyes
Are chasing the start
Hidden by smiles
The valley is dancing.