wide open spaces

wide open spaces,
beautiful, placid(ifying),
a rain of warm drops
from a light gray sky on an arid, summer day;

like the endless Midwest fields
(which I have not truly witnessed),
or the fields of grasses, surrounded by stands of trees,
in the SOM Metropark,
or the endless ocean,
seen from the white sands of Sarasota , Florida .

even those places
that aren’t so wide,
yet which are open to the heart’s imagination,
can have this hidden spaciousness;

like the mouth of the Cuyahoga River
as the Red Line pulls out, east,
from the W. 25th rapid station,
into the valley, gulls soaring,
serious for fish, hilarious for play,
the hillside, a quilt of foliage and condominiums.

and, actually,
any little, open space you can find
in this world of crowded developments and hopscotch, commercial zones
can add a bit of breadth to the mind –
the view down the street from the Cedar Hill-bottom station
into the arboreal University Circle ,
or the space of the heart, itself,
expanding upon your seeing a loved one,
or even your seeing a stranger, welcomed with heart ajar.