This Time Last Year. . . .

This time last year,

I took a road trip to Pullman,

to the Washington State University campus.

I wanted to view some documents and photographs

 in the manuscript collection.

In some ways, it was a walk down memory lane,

not just because the documents related to my family's history

as pioneers in the Washington Territory, but

because the library is just a stone's throw

from where I lived in my freshman year,

my "wheat country" experience,

before I came to my senses and back to civilization & Seattle

to graduate from the University of Washington.

After seeing what I'd come to see,

I jogged off the highway and took some backroads

to see what I could see.

The answer was traces of the past.

©2014 Meri Arnett-Kremian

Things abandoned.

©2014 Meri Arnett-Kremian

Things collapsed.

©2014 Meri Arnett-Kremian


It made me remember that permanence is an illusion,
that everything changes,
that certainty is a joke.

A year ago,
my puppy was just a little nugget. . . .
in fact, I didn't even know her yet.

A year ago,

I was owned by two houses,

my father hadn't yet been diagnosed with sarcoma,

Oliver was still choosing to let Logan speak for him.

Now Dad has refused all further treatment,

Oliver has found the gift of gab,

I'm settled in to the new house that's now Home,

and the world just keeps turning.