LIVES

 

I.

I hear the seagull
crying across the waters
late at night.
Black crosses the moon.

II.

This is the time of my life.
I wake up, go back to sleep
Wake up
Go back
Wake, back
Up, up I/
/What form
Will I wake in
Next?

III.

My hooves hit the floor
A deer, a sheep
Centipede feet
Webbed toes,  feathered wings
A duck, an angel…

IV.

The nascent steps
Of a little one
Are hard
To hear
But they are there.

V.

The moon the moon the moon
Is the face of the child.

VI.

I cry across the waters.

 
 

THE WILD NIGHT OF SLEEP

 

White blue-moon
     with the brilliance of full
Sky indigo
     with a hint of Parrish

Like fallen stars,
     shimmer home lights
     on distant hills

Woozy me
     gowned in white
     with half lidded eyes

Down on my bed
I stretch to the moon
     revel in its peace
I release
     but then tighten
     from a worry way wondering:

What will I face
     in this dark world place
     of confounding
     rhythms and rhymes

Unwinding and knitting
     duo pattern of sleep,
     pearls garner
     from paradise

Wild night hold me
in your unfathomable arms

 

BLOSSOMS

 

Plum, apricot, cherry, apple
the trees have put on their finest
plumes of bloom.
Each flower bursts with water—
dripping blossoms weigh down boughs
in pendulous languor.

Sweet sweet promise

Everywhere i look—
rippling white down creeks
distant dots in crevasses
swaths of swirling crimson
pinks, whites—
each petal plumper.

Sweet sweet promise

One hill near Canfield Road
sports a wide white shawl
bordering the creek at its feet.
on on on on it goes
and when all of those petals are gone….

Promise promise promise promise.

The promise in the mouth

Sweet sweet promise

Plumsplumsplums
cherriescherriescherries
peachespeachespeaches
cherriespeachesplums         apples
the  promise in the mouth

And then I found
the queen of all trees
in my daughter's back yard
as wide as it was tall—
a cherry blossom cloud.

I bow down in beauty and
Sweet sweet promise.