The sun can't make up for
Missing body heat
My maple leaf was torn
Cold spike was driven deep.
Sticky sap flows from me
My soul has been tapped
My sweetest flavors flowing
Won't ever get them back
Strands of shared pleasure
Wrapping around your hands
Connections with no measure
Getting messy wasn't the plan,
But you penetrated my bark
Seeking this supple blood
Bliss for your starving tongue
Left me empty now that you're gone.

Like a toothpick on a mammoth river,
I have no say in where I’ll go.
I think I know where I’ll end up.

A tiny sliver on a massive torrent-
I will not sink, though I may tangle
With another floating twig  

And find me carried in its direction
Whether that be to the salty ocean
Or washed up on a riverbank.

I’ll fetch up where the current puts me-
There’s no arguing with life
Or the mighty Columbia River.
ljm

On a dark cloudy day in a forest
The sun peeps through
The branches of my soul
And warms me.

In a gloomy, silent woodland
A bird I cannot see
Begins to sing the beating of my heart
And cheers me.

Hope, like a butterfly’s cocoon just opening
Springs into view
When brambles are pushed aside,
And I discover life again.

And thank the fates
I lasted long enough to do it.
ljm

Neither Nightingale or Crow
Neither Whippoorwill or Sparrow
Perched on phone lines, never trees
Still those birds have the right to sing.

Target of bad boys’ B B Guns
Splashed with water canons
They fly til they can fly no more
And tremble in the shadows.

Their feathers have a bit of shine
When sunbeams fall just right
But all too often that just makes
Them that much easier to find

And targets them for hatred rocks
Thrown by those who only
Recognize a Woodpecker
And a Robin Red Breast.

Too bad their music goes unheard
Most often it is beautiful
If they could sing with the other birds
The music would become symphonic.
                 ljm

Wobbly knifes, nervous on
diner tables
How are you?
I wish I didn't know why
you are not here
exploring foreign floors
together where our feet meet
sinking into waiting steps
the hum's amplitude increases
as I fade out
to a state of mind
framed around you
built upon your grounds

Blurry eyed under hotel covers
where a man on a mission
scales fences that block
building backs.
This unanticipated destination
where have we found ourselves
by getting lost?