Common Ground – a poem by K. L. Johnston

Common Ground
(An Atheist, a Presbyterian, and a Catholic Take Out Their Garbage)

I can hear my neighbor singing, 
the one whose house I can’t see 
for the golden leaves of the old 
maple, singing soft to herself 
as she carries out her weeks’ worth
of things to be reduced, reused. 

Across the street the tech guy who 
works from home, another neighbor,  
the one with the big heart, foster 
father of cats, raises his hand 
in greeting, grins, and looks skyward.  
We three stand silent, gazing up.

Above us the heavy velvet sky 
presses out its saturated
crimsons, oranges, while the moon 
rises early above the pines
and problems. We sometimes – amid 
the garbage, the recycling – 
forget the bigness of the sky 

(as big as her song) shaking out 
(as big as his heart) into this
new season’s slow wheeling around 
the depth of cobalt horizon, 
pushing forward into the night
and toward the coming equinox.

K.L. Johnston is an award-winning author, photographer, and poet best known for works centered in spiritual experience, nature, and trauma survival. Author of three books of poetry, In Every Season, The Nature of These Gifts, and Grace Period, her works can be found in literary magazines and anthologies. A retired antiques and art dealer she currently lives near the Savannah River. You can find out more at www.Facebook.com/Kathleen-Johnston or visit her online gallery at 1-kathleen-johnston.pixels.com.