Trill

By KRISTA J.H. LEAHY

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

To sing of what I fear,
shaking my body,
has an integrative power.

Sometimes something is
so funny even my legs laugh.

I do not know
the frequency of god,
but I adore
the frequency of laughter.

Not all frequencies are free.

I’ve learned this the hard way
from people who would profit
from what makes others shake.

Who teaches us to fear?
Who teaches us to laugh?

I would show you aspen
winnowing the wind
so that you would always
ken beauty from quake.

But it is not mine to always.

It is mine to some,
to often,
to rarely,
to mostly,

if I’m lucky,
to mostly   love

how aspens
shake
the whole
mountain range.

Krista J. H. Leahy’s poetry has appeared in Raritan, Reckoning, Tin House, Free Lunch and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared in Clarkesworld, Farrago’s Wainscot, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy and elsewhere. She would like to thank both Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Vermont Studio Center for the gift of time. 

Photo by Flickr Creative Commons user Bradley Weber.