Everyone Needs a Friend Like This

She has a shoreline smile
Below wheatfield hair,
A crescent of white land
For shipwrecked hearts.

Like a bow, she’ll draw you
Over the strings–no matter
If you’re in good tune–
Until you can hear what she hears
That’s sweet in you.

Like applesauce and charity
Nature blends in her;
Oh, you can taste her diplomacy
With a silver spoon.

Her mom once told her
To space her babies well apart.
Just so, she tends to you
With an act of listening
That stops time.

Listen. Can’t you just hear
The deep places in her voice?
Don’t you just know
You can drop anchor there?