Collecting Pearls
A poem by Barb Christing

Collecting Pearls

The mercury falls,
then rises;
oscillates the sky
between rain
and snow,
shades of gray.

We flip our collars up,
hunch against gusts
that blow us into puddles
veneered with ice.
We walk in circles
just to be together,
to breath the same chilled air,
hear the same sparrows,
watch them flit
from fence to bush,
talk about nothing,
and everything.

These days can now
be counted,
the number ever dwindling,
making each a pearl
to be polished,
rubbed between our fingers
until it shines,
then carefully tucked away,
to be retrieved
when our days
lose their luster,
and one of us walks alone.

About the Author:

Barb Christing is the author of the children’s picture book African Heartbeat, published by World Vision. Her work appears in Birding, MomSense, and Western Alumni Gazette. She was the Director of World Wildlife Fund’s Bohorok River Visitor Center, in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, where she worked on rehabilitating orangutans, and herself. She currently lives in the Appalachian Mountains with her husband Adam and their self-sustaining silk plants.

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