it's not the bustling city
with its massive modernity
and ever present life.
it's not the mountains
with their wild, untamed nature
and their way of making towns look small.
but something stands to be said
for the way the highways curve
into a mall complex
designed to look pleasing,
And for the way millions of cars
and parents and children
manage to fit together like a puzzle
so one can drop her youngest off
run errands with her eldest
and be home in time for her favorite evening programs.

I am lost to the winds, but a feather, nor you the wearer -
This time is brief and incandescent,
a well salted egression ... A trade in place -
Too otherworldly for you so I sail the ocean alone,
you are shorelined and it's time -
Farewell.

I only endure the pain of missing you
and knowing I can't hug you because
I can't eat these miles twixt you and I
neither can I drink the vast Ocean dry

I bear the ache of yearning to hug you in vain
because the feeling is mutual, you feel my pain
it hurts like a boil but there's not much I can do
I guess it's the price I have to pay for loving you

and unlike the rest we no longer doubt our intension
so I ignore millions often gazing with clear admiration
blooming in their eyes, cause you'll always be my inspiration
and I'm determined to bear, no matter the duration

for you walked in when none was brave enough to dare
you broke down the walls I had built, with honest love and care

Your kindness
a sunflower
whose many seeds
sustain the sparrow's
song of joy
and rest assured
do gorgeously
germinate in
thin-hulled souls
the soil is ripe
love yearns
to be reborn.

Where we shoveled coal into the furnace was an inconsiderable door. Behind it held ***** chubby cherubs with cherry tomato noses, whose job it was to keep the fires of our parent's liquor cabinets full. This they did to keep them from constantly beating us, but the happy distraction did not always work. So, we would pluckily go. Go to the scuzzy pond at dusk with kerosine lanterns and listen for croaks. We tied forks to the ends of canes or stakes and would gig bullfrogs for dinner. It became only momentarily mortifying, but was always a choice way of ridding our sisters and other clingy girls of our company. We'd fry the legs in cornstarch and pepper flakes and be allowed to share with the adults their beer if it was a good catch. Usually, it was. Most of forever we waited for teaberry season, always the best time of the year. Though it was hotter than Beelzebub's bath water we'd go swimming in that **** pond to reach our favorite teaberry patches. This ensured our riches and fame throughout our Appalachian village. Everyone would eat teaberry ice cream and sing our names and no one beat us on those days.

In this darkest of hours
I am ready
to be lit up
like a firebrand
the liquid
heat is
already rising
way above sea level
and I am wanting
to extend out
my hand to you
take you to
my soft lair
of emotional rescue
where ecstasy
will drip from our fingers
like wine
poured onto our bodies
play soft or hard
yet keep it fair
no intention
to smash your heart
just to build you up
and take you apart
Each sweet piece
treated with care
re-polished
and put back into place
renewed rejuvenated
just as you will participate
in my tribal dance
and make me
glow
I will become
one with yours,
my ebb,
your flow

Within me
there are folds among folds
twisted  paths
like veins mixed
with telephone wires
some newer some old
Communication is getting dusky
then clear
I am sitting in that chair
connecting phone lines
my headphones on
communicating with
celestial bodies
The ones welling up
in my brain
They are calling to my heart
telling it to
Rise up
over the earth
take flight
lifting its frequencies
Yes a connection had been made
Yes the line between
earth and sky
fixed from being
frayed
a spectral kind of
telepathy
lets loose within me
and soon my fingers
get all tangled up
It is no longer important
which wire goes where
because we are all connected
as silver threads
among stars
and my love bursts forth
as mystic and pure
as fireflies
from a glowing
beaming
jar

After the ball game
on the high school
playing field
Shoshana is still

sitting there
with another girl
so I go over to her
and she blushes slightly

and I say
what did you think?
she looks at me
and says

not very good
are you?
I smile
no not much

but they will
insist I play
at least you're honest
she says

I am
best way
I reply
the other girl

stands up and says
don't want to play
gooseberry see you
later Shoshana

and she walks off
something I said?
I say
no I think she finds

boys embarrassing
Shoshana says
I look at her
sitting there

dark hair
long straight
bell will ring
in a minute

she says
best get back
towards school
she stands up

and I say
where do you live?
I live a little way away
I get a school bus home

she says
so do I
I say
I know you do

she says
you get on
the same bus
as I do

I look at her
do I?
yes you've not seen me
I get on as quick

as I can
she says
I see you though
a bell rings

from school
well see you later then
I say
and she's off

leaving me there
and I wander back to school
across the grass
watching her go

her slight figure
in the afternoon sun
taking note
of her neat ***.