Iris, how you shallow breathe in winter
shiver under clouds, laid in a bed decayed and brown
days of cold in a garden underground
long through winter
and spring only ever waiting
to unfurl the color blue of you.

How you flew, newly feathered
a fledgling falling from the sky
but upwinds sailed you far and high
carried you, strong through clouds
winged and wild your arms
fingers running through
the updrafts of cold,
cooling, then
warm.

When finally quiet comes
the long pain of night's trudge
the unmasked soul dredge
swift an arrow, piercing
when friends have all gone
in the silent dark before dawn
this is when you
miss me.

High in the hills wends the road to your home
steeped and flowered by lupine towers
after long slumber, the waking hour - warmth of summer comes
our feet grassed and green, we wish on dandelion dreams
watch tiny parachutes glide into the sea
this place is wild resplendent music
we have become more than ourselves and slowed
have stopped to feel our breath grow
making a path cut from last year
we are slipped and sloped toward shore
silhouetted just before the end of sun
when the world sinks silent
but for the deeply toned
hum of whale song.

He bought and sold things, much like the man
who sold balloons in the park, fashioning them into strange animals
mostly fastened to wooden sticks, except for the helium headed ones
they remind me of you, floating high and lofty
out of reach, wanting escape from ties and pulling strings
drifting from the city moving countrywards
many are mesmerized by the migration
the fantastical triumph of levitation
they wait for days, years under trees
but not I, I am no longer drunk by
hot air and helium dreams

Kaleidoscope eyes
spirals amber brown
meld and move, turn and groove
exquisite mandala art, they impart
colored rings, how they bring
your soul to me
so close

Celestial, indigo
sparkling stars of fire
molten rings of planets round
the silent sailing clouds
float across a sallow moon
hung in a sky of glittered jewels
diamonds, opals, pearls