A dry heat crackles,parches the pale and spiny desert.In the red-rock landsof colossal cloudsthat stride the sky like gods–lit with sunlight, shadows, sometimeshearts aflash with lightning glowsand casting the colored laughterof rainbows in curtainsthat never touch the ground. Warm, essence of sage and mesquite on the air… Dry heat shatters:The storm, relentless,a vivid line between …
Tag Archives: poem
A SUMMER AFTERNOON
Heavy as hot wet flannel, every breath…I hate to sit or move againstthis August afternoon.Sticky-damp, clothes cling,a drag against ambition.Birds, lethargic, dull,sing only if they must,fly ghostlike if at allthrough dusty drooping trees.Cicadas ratchet on and on–maddeningly constant;mosquitoes whineor strike unheard, the devils!Roses overblown and bright,relishing this tropic season,exude aromas heavy and too sweet. I …
Who?
I look for youyour sweet face gleamingon the very edge of dreaming,I seek you, yearningto believe,to knowthat you are real…that we are in a worldtogether loving,touching, laughing,waltzingon a harlequin ballroom floor,chequered black and white,smooth and perfectin a forest glen,beneath crystal skiesand lit bydancing fireflies…
Privilege
I walked a path today, a path I’ve passedoh, many times before,because it led up-hill,and looked like work…But today, I walked it anyway. I was rewarded bya twisting tree I’ve never seen,and colored textures in the trailand a gated fence with signs:“No Trespassing” and“Private Property… No Entry”–all on the far side of the fencingfacing outward to the …
Octopus
Lurkingloosely,blobbishlyunrolling,your enormousbulbous heada-lolling,with a kind ofneckless graceas you come pouringdown the faceof rocky covesand coral caves that shimmerwith a most enchanting glimmerthrough the roofof pulsing waves–Gem set in a jewel… Red or yellow,white and polka-dotsor maybe cobalt blue:Loosely committed to your shade,your shape also definedsort ofby whatever space you fill… And yet, in youa hunter’s will…And truth be told,you’re really …
Muse
Under branches reaching…for light of starsand solitary moonsand wanderers across the sky…AlwaysI am here–another tale unfolding,a flower held in both our handsunbuddingto an unexpected bloom…The light of all these skiesshines–between our eyes…Never fear–I am here. Seek me,seeking you–in campfire shadows… in corners of your heartknownbut unexplored…In imagination’s sparklejust beyond the circleof its light, am I, …
Nocturne
This midnight restlessness of mindthat drives me room to roomis once again awake:when all the world is dark and dreamingit drives me softly,something seeking… A child in the window framegazing out on night-times’s day,held in thrallby lunar lightthat casts the night-landssoft and fey… A girl enwrapped in arms,entranced,over mothsthat dash and danceabout the silent night-light in the …
Night Running
Under a skynetted with starslike gemsin the sweeping wavesof holy tresses… Wind sighslike divine breathof the world aroundand with itI also breathe… Running, runningkinlessunder the skyMoon, the lanternfull as a pearl,a heart,the senseson a night like this… In such solitudealone and yetby all the world embracedI wonder,Where in all of itare you? 2014
I AM NOT WHITE
I am not white… Not white, but tones of pinkof gentle shades of tawnywith constellations on my skinof greater and lesser magnitudesof brown. My eyes are blueor sometimes more like grey.It’s a mood thingor a product of surroundingsand ecologies. My blood is redas brightas anyone’s. My hair has lived throughsun-touched goldand lightish, dullish brown,and through fads …
Lament
I’m sorry, I can’t love youas maternal love should be…Out here I standbeyond the glass, a wall of distancebetween my heart and the world. Love’s such a quiet subtle thingso easily drowned outby need and wantand hungers wailingfrom a time,the time when childrenlearn to loveby being loved. I’m sorrythat my missing piecesmake this puzzlethat is …
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 