Still Here

Megan McLaughlin

I wish the leaves had hands to hold,

unyielding eves through 

calm and cold. 

I hope these fall-crisp fallen know

that somewhere,

someone loves them so. 

Sun’s tawny drops

and dregs of day.

Sweet gales long lost, swept far away.

A bluebird call on feathery skin, 

tucked safe and sturdy

deep within. 

As now the breeze brings

airs of snow, I’d plead these

wind-roam loners know

how oft we smiled,

wind and I,

to see them dip and kiss the sky

–how even now, as ground they claim,

some things,

they will not yield 

to change. 

Furled fringes stretched 

for once held branches,

fingers crossed for second chances

–even one, 

sung soft and true

I’m here,

and I still love you.

Megan McLaughlin is a junior English and Secondary Education major at Saint Anselm College. She hopes to pursue a career in teaching. In her free time, she enjoys reading, drinking tea with lots of honey, gardening and going on walks with her family. Megan is very grateful to have been able to contribute to the humanitas journal, and is in awe at the various forms of creative expression that her peers have put forth for St. A’s readers to experience.