A Walk Around the Block

Years ago, when we started this routine, we did it for good reasons we could name. Now, every day, we still take our walk around the block without much thought. I guess it’s a little like the way a clock we never notice wears away the hours and days by telling time while taking it away. And since the dog died there is less we have to do, less to think about. I’ve noticed, recently, unless you take my hand or I take yours, that you always walk a pace or two ahead of me. When I speed up and try to pull abreast, you increase your step, dart off, and pull away again. I’ve tried to think of this philosophically, and made of such a little matter much— much too much, I know you’d say. Still, just the other day, you said I’d followed you for years. Now I wonder if you meant it literally. And so we make our rounds, nodding to neighbors we almost know, make small talk, recite the weather. And when we come to the top of our short hill, turn the corner and come back home again.