A rippling effect
has the ocean
grace us, love
never left us
apart
as time
stumble into
a halt
turning
bad memories
into a
nightmare
simply forgotten,
we changed
for the
better...

i.

the last leaves of autumn
have fallen like birds
floating on the breezes,
catching at the windows,
gathering the golds of the sun.

ii.

the first chill of winter
anchors its petals
to the earth, gathers
its frosts and its ice.

iii.

lady of the winter winds,
black waters that wait,
shimmering to a softened moon,
harbouring the drifting stars
like little boats.

iv.

sunken into dream
the night sky maps its path
blows into the corners of the wind
conjures its caverns and
dark caves.

v.

i’ll never let go of your love
for my legs,
your love warm honey,
my yesterday’s caught
in tomorrows, sweetened
only by your lips,
i drift into your love-
i’m in love with your love.

DESERT RAIN

A few stars in a broken sky
The moon plays tag with scudding clouds
Creating Rembrandt vistas in the night,
Setting the scene for thunder’s roll,
Which triggers the evening lightning show
And introduces the deluge.

A seven minute Niagara Falls
That drowns the desert landscape
But never sires a blossom or a shoot
To open in the days to come.

It just arrives and quickly goes
With nothing left behind but mud
And canceled Flash Flood warnings.

And it’s all gone come the morning,
Nothing left behind but damp
And pebbles washed onto the road.

ljm

Some days, this desert
under spells of sun and moon
think, I brood in fields of agave blue
the angled sun blares sharp to parch
to dry, to crackle leaves to dust
tricky this prickly pear cactus
bitter thorns laden with
impossible blood sweet fruit
while high and seen out the corner
of my eye, the half moon smiles
beguiled by the sun.

Confusion allusion
Factual illusion
What’s done undone

Confide beside
Unknown betide
Not lost but won

Decision derision
Conclusion delusion
Condition revision

What fun!

Listening rain plashes
upon crystal spring waters
It hears the trailing distance
disguised in the silent gravity
chasing it down the sky;
refreshingly sprinkling
          stillness
where spotless fawns
drink from mirror pond
green and peacefulness

     A man falls from
a distance he knows by heart;
dropping like a wind broke tree ...
Breaking all the silence hidden
within the deepest places
          of his soul
Hitting the ground hard
to see if he still feels —
laying there broken
feeling the raindrops
     soothe the hurt

Certain when he’s able
     to get back up,
hearing a distant calling
to the fountains of his soul —
he may fall down again
     bearing the weight
     of broken dreams
     But he’s seen it all
for long enough to know:
he’s no candle in the wind

Awakening in an unfinished life,
coming back from the dead,
     still feeling each
     feral breath enough —
     to keep on trying
to chase down the wind ...


     harlon rivers                                                           ­                          .