My heart beats slow
On this blue spring eve
Silence hums
As I continue on
This gentle, winding road

A flower
Red pettaled
with a soft yellow face
Rests flat, wilting
on a chipped white windowsill
In the city

Picked by a thin woman
On a warm summer night

she had walked by many times,
And never once noticed
Its becoming hues of red and yellow

But it always noticed her,
Straining its yellow face
Upward To watch
Her graceful gate

And the way her skirt
Delicately danced
Like flower petals in the breeze
As she walked by

But that evening
She noticed

And she adored it
enough to take it home
Perching it purposefully
On that warm windowsill
In the city.

And there it rested,
Horizontal and high

Window open,
Warm breeze coming through,
Gracefully receiving the day,
In its final hours

Enjoying its new perspective,
Finally looking down,
rather than straining upward,
To watch those great human giants,
Busily walking by

And feeling its physiology degrade
it smiled inside
consumed by the wonderful new sensation
Of lying down

Enjoying a final rest,
And a new view
as the world rushed by

Resting, just resting
Assured
That all was good
And all was right.

As life slowly faded away...

She wept.
Curdled upon the disjointed planks
Of old mahogany wood
On her cold bedroom floor.

She watched the empty air
Swirling specks of dust
In a perfect dance, afloat
Before her blurry eyes.

Each particle contained
A glimmer of light
That informed her,
Day was near.

But still, she sank
Beside the bed,
That contained
The essence
Of them--

Words, softly spoken
In the black abyss of night
When sound and sensation
Triumphed over sight.

The timelessness they spent
Within the vortex,
Levitated & contained
As that enchanted rhythm,
Moved them-
Together.

Those raw mornings
When light spilled across them
Delighting
In an innocent rebellion
Against the sun’s command
To begin the day.

STOP

Without an accomplice
She felt no delight
In her meager rebellion
Against the light.

And so she collected
everything within her
and drew herself to kneel.

And then,
Pressing the calloused soles of her hands and her feet
Into that cold mahogany floor,
She picked herself up-

And began her day.

I have learned to enjoy the night
As it approaches,
I no longer turn away
to chase after the day that has passed
Running backwards
Against the eternal force of time

Constantly
Moving
In one direction;
forward.

I have learned to enjoy the night
No longer do I waste the splendor of dusk
Pressing my meager resistance against it

Instead, I melt into it
becoming one with the dimming day
Everything slows
As the darkness gently fades the lines of distinction
blending all of life into one into one
Under the tender canopy
Of night
Where all is made new.

I have learned to enjoy the night
Accepting the day has passed
Come and gone
And that life,
In that particular shade of day
Will never be seen again

In your presence,
Music plays in my ear.

Sometimes the beat is slow, like blues
And it pulls at my heart
Stretching it
Wider and wider
Till it feels it will break
Like the New Orleans Dam

And sometimes it’s fast like jazz
Fluttering my heart and my feet
Moving me in such a way
that feels disorganized
but really, it’s just too complex
for the mind to follow,
given its nature.

And occasionally
There is a slow, peaceful hymn
A solo harp
That simply
and purely
sings us both
into a sleep-like state

All these songs play in my ear
For you, depending on the day
Or the hour
Or the moment
Or the look in your eye
Or the tone in your voice

And given the hymn,
I am drawn to weep, or dance, or sleep

But frozen in space
I wait, intently watching your face
For some subtle indication
That you hear it too…

In a daffodil field
Blue sky in my eyes
Marmalade sun
Sweetens the breeze
I drink it in,
Resting in my mothers arms-

Lord, let me remember
Your love.

I’ve got this hungry, selfish love
Pleading on these desperate, bleeding knees
For you to open
So that I may survive