leave me where I can watch my kitten as she shoves her paw between the rocks of a hastily built wall, shoulder deep and searching. where the hummingbirds above my head buzz and twirl and chitter in a particular ballet, squawking tiny squawks at each other flit zipping at the feeder I fill weekly. where the sun is bursting over the eastern mountains warm with a new day and not yet enough to fight the persistent chill of morning. leave me where I can rest and breathe and witness the glory of small creatures. where the wary wren bounces across the ground, then flies if the kitten comes within five yards. where the red tailed hawk’s cry comes to my ears over the wide plain of high desert, grasses full of food. let me stay where the sky spreads so wide I can reach these arms to find the horizon lower still than my wingspan. where the milky way spreads from one fingertip to the other even as the moon glows in the dome of shared sky. leave me here, and I will never feel abandoned