Our heads bow over a book
Bow and bow again.
We take turns reading pages
Promising re-covery
A loving cloak for raw emotions
A shelter in discomfort.

Lightning preceded the surprising rain
Falling on unripened strawberries,
Unfinished pumpkins, silly bright sunflowers
Blinking out from the newly grey, quiet light.

Puddles emerge on our gravel road
Like the cancer in our friend's breast, liver, spine.
The mastectomy is cancelled.
The garden party is cancelled.

Our heads bow again
Over books, hearts, bodies, life.
Are there souls untouched
By worldly too-soon showers?

We seam our sides together
We harvest and harvest again.