All the faces
have been shattered
like worn out masks
Call an angel and nay
many un-awakened
would stand aloof

Blooming when no one ever immediately witnessed
Was it yesterday or today that the whole sky turned pink with tints of white paint
You turned my heart into a cherry blossom a  whirl of candy floss laughs and smiles
Renewing my gray memories of love with
rosy balloons and red lipstick
Comfort, warmth, and passion
Smoothing all the cracks with compassion
and filling empty branches with a nurturing hope and revitalizing flushes of first love play-fullness
Spontaneously blooming contentment of joyful femininity
Turning the whole life into a happy sakura celebrating nature and the coming of spring  bragging about how beautiful the world could be if all the barren souls awakened
We started all over again …fresh and new pink buds pushing through
Smiles, laughs and sakuras
A joviality of festive beauty in fruity and sweet flowery fragrances
Short it was too short…and sudden
All the flowers wilted
breathless and dehydrated in a drowning bath of  fears and tears
Snow flakes of my soul
Weeping sakuras

It's a big world.
But little care.
There's lots of people.
But no one's there.

Who calls?
The dentist office
for your six-month cleaning.
The doctor's for another screening.

The world is full of noise.
But no one's there to listen.
Earphones drown your voice.
And cell phones block your vision.

Where did all the words go?
There are no cards or letters.
Bills fall in your mailbox.
You're one of many debtors.

But when you die
they'll be many bodies around you.
People all surround you, many men and
women, and some even children.

Summer arrives, scent through open windows
busy Bees heavy laden chased back outside

The Gulls songs have changed
the Cuckoo has arrived

All manner of garden birds
fill up on Sunflower hearts

All is greening, reaching for the sky
as I live fully a miniscule life.

Stroll with me under the trees
to where the old road bends,
at the hanging sycamores
then walk away
beyond my sight
for I cannot follow
do not turn back,
you have many miles to go
and new companions to meet
I will wait here, in the shade
tired feet need to rest
visit me now and again
when the leaves fall
but only in memory
walk on

Yes, here I am
In my 1955 model body
Sipping hot toddy
But on the inside nothing has changed
It’s all on the outside.

And there I go
Like the old man in a song
Shuffling along
Inside, nothing has changed
But, oh, the outside.

The years have passed
One on one
69 have gone
In the blink of an eye
But the changes you see, tell a lie.

SE      May 24

The nightingales are sobbing in
The orchards of our mothers,
And hearts that we broke long ago
Have long been breaking others
-W. H. Auden

At 6 am there was thunder
loud enough to wake me and the cats
rain toe-tapping on the pane
calling us to the theater:

"Come look at us, heavy clouds
of dark morning: spray-headed,
sunrises in our throat.
Enjoy our Sunday eyes"

I did. The paper people
at the bus stop huddled
& dissolved under wet slants.
The crust of horizon broke away

into thick puff-parcels, and
beneath it all the water flung
itself against the scory stone
before escaping down the drain cape.

"Come look at us, the wet-nurses:
our hands on the doll-face petals,
the walls of leaves. We evaporate
into the sea engine, purring with life."