waiting as we do

i was a little boy

in wales

once

long ago

we had stopped at a village market

to buy bread and cheese and tomato

which we ate in our car

beside us

a hill

pulled back into the sky

so steeply

such a sharp ascent

and the wind

thin and pierced

with embroidered eyelets of rain

slanted sideways

as if

pushing

against my wish

to see the top

where i imagined myself

telling my daddy

that i had done it

i had climbed to the top

his wish

fulfilled

-

there's a tree walking around in the rain,

it rushes past us in the pouring grey.

it has an errand. it gathers life

out of the rain like a blackbird in an orchard.

when the rain stops so does the tree.

there it is, quiet on clear nights

waiting as we do for the moment

when the snowflakes blossom in space.

from: "the tree and the sky" tomas tranströmer

this was the day of my dad's birth so very long ago