Wind buffets me 

from side to side, 

away from daily 

news and politics. 

My daily escape 

into forceful tides, 

one day from north, 

the next from south,

leaves me baffled 

on which way to lean. 

I only know to keep on 

walking the path where 

each way always leads back home. 

Richard Dinges, Jr. works on his homestead beside a pond, surrounded by trees and grassland, with his wife, two dogs, two cats, and five chickens. Green Hills Literary Lantern, North Dakota Quarterly, Studio One, Rockford Review, and Spadina Literary Review most recently accepted his poems for their publications.