To The Woman Playing Solitaire on her Phone While Hiking with her Husband

What drew you to sit
on the wooden step
on the wooden path
over the swampy area
your husband was
trudging over? I thought
you were injured or
tired, your bulk
blocking my way
immovable, unflinching
so I had to move
around you, step off
the path, glancing
as I passed, at your
hands, the lit object,
the tiny cards. The man,
your husband I presume,
standing in the wood,
scanning the air, a large
camera hanging at his neck.
What a picture you were
there so weary
of him? Of his incessant search
of birds, perhaps, the
rare robin or thrush,
the way he looks for them
and at them the way
he used to look at you?

Linda McCauley Freeman has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies, including a Chinese translation of her work for an international journal. She recently won Grand Prize in Storiarts poetry contest honoring Maya Angelou, and her work was selected by the Arts Mid Hudson for inclusion in their Artists Respond to Poetry 2018 show. She has an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College and is the former poet-in-residence of the Putnam Arts Council. She and her husband are professional swing dance instructors in the Hudson Valley, NY.