Ciela and the Sewer Cap (A Poem from Katie)

We leave the house
where we have been
both alone
and together
for fourteen days

Down into the gulch
onto the path
that takes us
by the pond
the stream
the birds
the cattails

Ciela runs
as though a great celebration
awaits her
to the sewer cap
on the path before us.

“Come hear the rushing water!”
She shouts to me
with unreserved joy.

Tears
and goosebumps
arise
from within my body
as I write.

This body that has spent
so many years
living through filters
that are not my own.

That I could see a sewer cap
in a place where my daughter
falls in love
with the sound of rushing water.

So much she does not yet know.
What she knows so deeply.
And I seem to have forgotten.

That a sewer cap
on the trail
is nothing to be passed by
but a reminder
that if we listen
we can always find
beauty.