Before you a love song never took shape
never blinked at me with blue-green eyes,
never stabbed me.
Before you a breakup song never
laid on my shoulder
and cried with me
Your love made it all make sense.
This is why teardrops were on guitars.
This was why la vie was en rose.
I only wish I had left love
safely buried
on pages and stanzas.
In My Own Oubliette
our destinations differ, but
while we share this liminal space,
between here and there,
not really anywhere,
may we find a modicum of
peace in the reality that we
are moving, and that we
move together.
-
Also whoever smells like barbeque should know it is delightful and I hope their meal is nice.
What are the laws of nature? Can you tell me? I can only think of one That energy cannot be created Or destroyed That it can only reconstruct One form into another
So what makes a flower bloom? Did I give the blossom My energy? I assume it comes from somewhere Within the soil, the stem But let me believe I can transform Into a beautiful thing too
Under lacey shade and golden rain
Desert cherry blossom trickles
Bright desert light onto a bed of pebbles.
A verdin hops branches, calling all the time
Honeyed warble from blue-green twigs.
Florid sprigs along crooked boughs,
Silken sun-drops flit to the ground.
Bees delight in their bounty,
Bobbing from petals, bringing new life.
Soon, these skirts are traded for
Seeds, their pods forage for locals.
Gifts abound from smooth-barked
Florida, this Parkinsonia blessing
All who alight in and around her
Resplendent wings.
There's no shame in collecting
Pretty things in an ugly world
Prisoners are allowed their pictures
Hoard your joy there, tooth to cheek
Your smiles are stolen secrets
This land does not deserve
Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney
I start with parks,
Unassuming grassy expanses
Rimmed with palms, perhaps
With a pond or playground
I graduate to preserves
Larger ponds, sometimes with
Geese, always with ducks
I walk along its paved paths
Or rocky byways, but I
Run into the road
The sounds of cars inescapable
Beyond the quacks and honks
And rustling of untrimmed mesquites
I try a "hike", more of a
Stroll through the stones of a
Great, holey hill
I lose track of my impromptu
Guides, so I take the easy route
It leads to he canal, another
Reminder of man's hubris in the
Desert biome I now call home
I was born to a land of true wilds,
Of old growth forests protected by
Fences, yes, but standing proud, uncut
I was born to hills, and creeks, and
Bushes bursting with black berries,
Counting the stars on a clear night,
Camping in the back yard,
Craning our necks to watch deer
And woodpeckers working
To hear bats screech under the new moon
I sit on a plastic bench, molded like wood
I watch men fish at stocked ponds,
I hope the sounds of motorcycles
Doesn't scare their catch,
But these creatures are likely as
Trained to the sounds as the grackles
Are to rooting through trash
I pray that the little natures around me
Remain un-golfed, and undeveloped
That the canal can yet give rest to cormorants,
That the bougainvilleas can shelter the sparrows,
That what little respect my new home has
For its many gifts can yet be preserved,
For the sake of the hikers, the birds,
The saguaros, even the God-given rocks
I pray for all of these things with my one
Little soul, with all the nature within,
Though futile my tiny words may be
To the unrelenting force of mankind's
Unending greed and craving for more,
More, more