What are you doing just now?

Perhaps you’re rinsing a coffee cup

Warm water caressing your hands

Sea waves lap over ankles

Deliberately digging your toes into the sand

Speaking with a relative

And something they say

confirms that hope or fear you have about these days.

Sunk in the sofa with siblings,

warm and drowsy in your gaze.

Loitering in your favourite café

Creasing the pages,

To make them feel yours.

Thinking of what’s to come,

the familiar bringing clarity to the undone –

And as you linger by the bay

You’re surprised by the chirp of the soft Blue jay.

Illustration credit: Alex Matraxia