August 17, 2021

remember the alpacas **

We could memorize the facts, for safe-keeping. Tether our understanding
to their family of origin, say, or the number of shades of wool, or the height
at the highest part of the back. We could study the theater of their mating,
learn the birthweight of their offspring, travel to an Andean plateau to watch
what happens in the wild. Instead, we wander the farm jettisoned
from the part of our bodies where worry lives, find the animals
squaring their attention to the sweetest tips of grass. So when she says,
“Remember the alpacas,” I think what she means is, Look how bright
the day still is, how lush the fields, how perfectly wispy the clouds.
Or This can be a kind of happiness. Or This is happiness.