First published in Blue Heron Review‘s special issue, “Meaningful Connections.”

The humidity, summer’s mucous-like fog
Has lifted from the air around our house
If only for a short reprieve

Here on our deck atop the tree canopy, we work
He upright under the navy and white striped dining umbrella
Me reclined on the chaise (“feet up,” the midwife had said)

He codes, a laptop the perch for his busy hands
I write, a gold pen against my calloused thumb
A duet of sentences and algorithms

The sounds of the forest engulf our work
The etch of the pen and soft tap of the keypad
Against a harmony of buzzes and chirps and rustling

And the rhythmic thumps, tiny feet pressing
Against the inside of my swollen belly
Pitter patters of a new life inside

We don’t speak
Except to occasionally comment
On how we should work out here more often