This Is Not Water

There's a merging

where I hide deprived

A combining of a toxin

that feels like water

in a desert

But is not water

There's a river

guides and carries me

in calm beneath

Where community resides

Not of one or two

or three

  

Letting Things...

There are those things

so many

ratcheting toward agitation

I collect them

sorting, labeling

Until they bury me

and I can't find myself

in the accounting, calculating focus

That excludes

every part of the seconds

that make a day

true

I imagine them

    drifting from view

  

Carried Away

Five, no ten

fingers outstretch

Transported

riding time's stream

seems

traceable

          apparent

You plus me

Hands unclench

emptied

For what

time has certainly carried away

  

Recycled?

When I'm thrown away
Where is the recycle bin to place
all that was between you and me?

Does a friendship

get to be recycled

Knit into the potential

within to find

love again?

When a person is thrown away

A lifetime of words, places, conversations

is attached

labeled

for recycling?

  

  

Refusing Ebb

Bluer than the brushstroke
up and to the side
bridging the divide

Bluer than the tears
always pooling tidal,
refusing ebb

I see the tide 
a little farther true north
just a little farther

To place the space
my soul resides

  

Inland

How can my world
become so small

and today

Even when it's here

Ticking of the clock

Driving

each ping

each clang

The day

sways

away

Inland

  

The Tide Will Never Fail

The tide will never fail
Waves in many ways

Roll in

Crashing or calling

I'm falling

into earliest memory

Core temperence

For wherein

all longing

stands fulfilled

  

Driving By

Did you hear me?
I spoke out your name

I said I love you
Driving by, a goodbye

I said thank you
for always

"Always being"
like you told me to,
long ago

Always Be,
Always, be
ALWAYS BE!

Disband

Where do they go

Attachment, lumen constant,

within a locale not for show

Where does the intrinsic self remain?

Along the way

Shame uproots

Turning from a central hold

Anybody

Near or far

Disbanded

  

A Steady Valve

There is a thread

pure white gold

woven through, thoroughly, uncut

Someone took a piece of its fabric

One day

long ago

Assuredly

it held fast, knots and binding

shifting into clarity

Pumping steadily

around the valve

A Heartbeat Too Slow

I thought it was clear
between us

You would call

First

When all the fears

and doubts

hung around

swarming like wasps in the dark

We were a heartbeat apart

from the start

A duet of free belly laughs

unstoppable

through it all

How can this lifetime river's

steady flow

cease

One heartbeat

too slow

Richmond, MA 2014

To dearest Jill, with all my love forever

Cartography

Cartography in degrees

Is it a discipline, a studied art?

Web maps so ever present

Click to open

live views, immediate and updated

Terrains unexplored,

yet read

Mountains with valleys, roads versus uncharted territory

Informs safely to build,

or where sites remain

untenable

  

Want Ads

Selling out inspiration

While decluttering bitter judgments

Far away

Seeing purple bubbles

amber shades in the gray

Blue waves in the window

wrinkled questions

Their remedy

drifting out to sea

  

  

Avalanche

Silences
Awake and asleep
tell a story
deeply buried in uncertainty

Where explanation fails

Like an avalanche

of doubt

Terror like a shadow

shifting

shaping

Mismanaging the next step

Slipping on the silence

Icy Avalanche

Burying mobility

Stifling blows

in thinning air

Thinning air

  

Both Sides

That song

I smile remembering

Summers

Climbing the steps in the snow

I really don't know love

even both sides now

When will I look in your eyes

Close enough to really see

Where you are

to find me

  

Vintage

Shopping lists

A search for vintage pieces

Catching creative days

Long since passed away

Vases, silver tableware monogrammed

Treasures proudly shared

On display, never tiring of their company

Where does friendship become vintage,

a treasure saved and proudly displayed?

Where is the appraiser

able to estimate what equals

you and me,

the engraving on hearts

vintage

  

Ions

Amber, violet sky

so far away

climbing in the clouds

watching leaves

drying out

still dancing on a breeze

memories

Metallic grey, blue, turquoise

on a string

Peach and violet circles

ring

All flecks

just ions in my eyes

  

Our Sweet Morning

Our sweet morning

began the journey

together

Your trust a prize

earned steadily

readily

You taught me letting go

wins true affection

In patience, grows love

Our sweet morning

you followed me

you chose me

as your home

In our last sweet morning

unbeknown

I gazed at you

and then above

Thanking Heaven

In Loving Memory of Willow
2009-October 7, 2022

Fluttering Wings

Small grey wonders
fluttering on my window sill
today of all days

Turn their head as if to say
it's okay, it's okay

They flutter away
to the tree
showing me

How to let go
in the sunshine

  

Amber Pale

What I see staring back at me

Colors amber, violet

Pale with vivid centers

Silent as a sunset

speaking volumes of doubt

Behind silhouettes of hills

and waves upon the sand

Fog folds inward

on itself

As the search

concludes