"some cry with tears,
others with thoughts"*

sun-way heat beats against
quiet bodies.

my truth left two souls
melding with a splash of
purple—

the mimicry of my cry
surging with
impending ocean.

you who I truly know
last kissed June 7th
in eternal sunshine—go
to beach

and be free.

I’ll wait for you in
the meantime.

I wake up apart
and exquisite just
having slept nine hours.
there is a stout rain—
fallen, realized—water
on my mind in the
arms of the wind.
leafy is my yawn.
longing is my love.
and my hand rises
to rub my numb face
awake.
I am alive in this moment.

I’ve forgotten
to be anything but
space—so enraptured
with the black that
the forest was
less than a goose pimple
on earth’s flesh.

I have ignored the
eighth notes
hanging from the pines.

I have forgotten
the snowbirds and whipped
winds.

I have numbed the needles
pocking skin through
my jeans.

I have forgotten green.

I have forgotten green.

I have forgotten green.

now
the light of frozen
flies dims
in your mouth.

now
love washes out
in seasons.

now I eat
sugar-frosted buckthorn.

And I see you
ready to touch
through one
hundred leaves
and foliage.

A dent in the wall -
Something said, something thrown. Hush,
A praying fly sleeps.