Sometimes, the sight of your two-tone,
your brick, your stone - All hail! -
demands my glee. It rips it out of me.
It is sacrificed on the mountaintop
for a distant harvest, sometimes;
for surviving winter under your oaks,
your maples, your falling branches.

But I love your cold, your winter,
knowing winters make us strong.
All hail.

I dreamed of you again last night,
A Venus wreathed in seafoam light
And sheathed in midnight,
bruise-black dress all cinched up close
Around your figure, clinging tight
To every curve, each tidal wave -

As if the moon, tempestuous,
Stirred in together lust and wrath
Her darkened face all smoldering,
No pity left in her loving eyes.

I dreamed your sweet, voracious sin,
Your laughter and your wicked grin,
And barely dragged myself away
To wake before the dawn could come.
The bruise-black sky awaited me,
As if my eyes could find you there.

The moon, so blinding-bright, just smiled
That deadly teasing twist of lips.
I won't deny. I searched her glare,
Spent fragments of eternity
In one more step, another slip
Before the slide back into dreams.

A boarding pass, a taken seat:
Deny the oft-occluded street
And while the miles away on high -
Good Lord, preserve me if I die.

The cramp and bustle of the aisle
Refutes the notions "sleek" and "style",
But, packed and stacked, we came to fly -
Good Lord, preserve me if I die.

I'll miss the rails and roads, well-tracked -
And miss them more, my stomach wracked
By nerves, by swerves, by wind and sky -
Good lord, preserve me if I die.

"I loved the skyplane's daring curves
In youth, but now her fuel reserves
Do more to shore my faith," I sigh.
Good Lord, preserve me if I die.

I ache to meet the ground once more,
But not too soon. If that's the score,
I plead, spare my beloved's eye.
Good Lord, preserve me if I die.

A constellation glimmers atop the pavement,
Shards scattered carelessly, violently,
eager to catch the headlight lamps.

A galaxy draws the eye as if to spare it
The twisted crush of steel and blood
Parked nose-first in the drainage ditch.

The gutter catches what remains,
Trenches carved through the lip
Where it chokes around the wreck.
It can't swallow fast enough to save
Some mystery, some dignified tragedy,
Leaving only something raw and lost.

Let's bask atop this spinning stone
Where sun-glow sears the soles and skin
Until it reaches bleaching bone
And kisses it 'til wearing thin.
Let's savor summer's coming-home
As if it never will again.
The heatwave scorches off our fears
And sets us free. Scream joy and tears.

The blacktop, lapping at your heels
Like hellhounds barking out dog days;
The noonday shadows' faint appeals
All stifled in the phoenix blaze;
The April blossoms wilt and peel.
Their season's passed. They cannot stay,
Not while the sun is in its power,
We'll watch them die within the hour.

The azure sprawl of Alabama's sky,
Its cataract clouds wiped away, unstained, stares down like God's own eye.
There are no stars to guide us through the blue,

No landmarks for a stranger neck-deep
In the strangeness of a strange land
Where everyone looks back with
Affable suspicion, pleasant concern,

But home is where the heart is, so maybe
Part of home is here, this blessed mess,
Where under God's eye we toil away
Forging memories from spent time.

"The brain - is wider than the sky -"
But not here.

Spring, cherished maiden ambivalent:
three parts rain, one part intemp'rate sun.
Show sympathy for clouded, rueful weather -
and let her weep 'til she, at last, is done

for there is no permanence in her grief.
She's winter's lover, moreso summer's child:
clutching daisy chains like bespoke rosaries,
new petalled life retrieves her golden smile.