Halfway There

Unforced Movement
Moving without trying to improve anything.

I hadn’t been walking
since I had some sort of cold.

Finally felt pretty good today,
so decided to walk.

Even though I liked the quiet
of birds chirping
and lawn equipment in the background,
I put on my headphones
to protect my ears
from the cooler air.

I took the first trail head
to the second,
as I have many times before.

The first thing I noticed
was two magpie birds,
I think that’s what they are called,
land right by the trail
and look at me.

They both did.

Unsure why.

Not fear.
Maybe they thought
I had something for them.

They seemed confused by me.

Then they flew off.

I noticed a pile of dog poop
on the trail.

This time no green bag.
Just the pile.

I thought,
“Halfway there.”

I took a stick
and flicked it off the trail
into the area
where no one walks.

Where it could just
disintegrate.

It felt right.

I thought
that life might be
a series of flicking poop
out of the way.

I got to the part
where I had been jogging,

and decided
to do the opposite.

I relaxed my limbs
as much as possible

and walked
with a loose,
chill method.

It was nice.

The lyrics
in my headphones played,
“I still have fight left in me.”

I thought
that I had fight left,

just didn’t like
how I used it before.

I went home.