The outdoors saves us all

Just when I think we’ll just try again tomorrow —

That the volume is too high;

The spirits too low.

That the whining is but a record stuck on repeat,

We emerge through the smudged backdoor.

Mis-matched socks,

backwards shoes,

two yellow dogs eager to jump and lick

into a world where no screen can emulate

the awe of nature’s playground.

And in this space, almost magically —

the one who was crying has now found a stick,

the ones who were squabbling have now crawled under a box that’s really a boat — oh, wait, now a cave,

And my mind is stilled.

My ears now attuned

to the subtlest of sounds in the winter trees —

And just when I thought it was a day for the birds,

The outdoors saves us all.