magnolia

We moved into our home four years ago:

It was a sweaty night in early June

with the sleepy cicadas moving slow

and the magnolia tree in full bloom.

Focused on bringing our worlds together,

like the corpus callosum of the brain,

neither of us thought to check the weather,

and so we got caught in ravenous rain.

The house provided obvious shelter

with four dry walls and a watertight roof,

but we chose to trust the summer swelter

and huddle under nature's tallest truth.

Beneath the magnolia tree that night,

for the first time, we held each other tight.