Trees in the fall remind me: It’s OK to lose things. It’s OK.
—Steve Garnaas-Holmes

•••
(for Catherine O’Brien)
•••

Because there’s a difference between losing
something & shedding—one more intentional

than the other—I trust Elizabeth Bishop:
“The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”

But neither does losing always spell disaster,
though it can feel that way, in watching a beloved

lose robust good health, in a fall that is
not the season, not about leaves, but the kind

that results in injury, that makes us wonder
if this loss scatters more of our marbles,

our independence, how we make our way
in the world. Look at the trees, which, like us,

are slowly working their way to an end,
& take a leaf from their branches, perhaps

not as sturdy as they once were, but neither do
they mourn the departure of their summer green

skirts—shedding is what we do in small &
large ways. We lose things. Sometimes big things.

It’s OK. We go on—losing, yes,
& trusting that, somehow, we are held,

that we will be found.