Natural

By Rodd Whelpley

My brother did not wake today
in the place where he wanted not
to wake on the day he wouldn’t. Home 
is where to be when your day comes 
not to be. 

                 Water is heavy, gravity 
constant; and so rain – everything 
soaking to the earth. Except wind
off this great lake, 

                              which can carry ashes
before some settle on the waves,
the sand, my hair, my tongue – 
my lips moving unbeknownst to me
in the wordless way that now we wake.

Rodd Whelpley manages an electric efficiency program for 32 cities across Illinois and lives near Springfield. His poems have appeared in numerous journals. His chapbooks include Catch as Kitsch Can (2018), The Last Bridge is Home (2021) and Whoever Said Love (coming in 2022). Find him at www.RoddWhelpley.com.