Light it up
On top the rock
Climb in there
Warm wool socks

Smoke and shiver
Feel relaxed
It's not so cold
Here on our backs

Walk the trail
Covered in snow
Slide and laugh
Our smiles grow

We lose our path
But find a new one
High in the mountains
So much fun

In the city of my heart
I have gathered paradise
close to my *****
loose blossoms fall
like strands from well kept tresses
love smitten lips plant
wild unkempt kisses
unbridled fireflies
a thousand fold
on evening's glowing face

The water is always calmest at night, sometime around one or two on the Carolina coast. It’s right around the time the moon has grown tired of pulling the earth towards it; when its hands are shaking from holding in something so big, when the water takes a little bit longer each time to kiss the shore. I’ve learned to love how the water looks at night, it seems more selfless to me than it does during the day when the sunshine reflects the peaks and breaks of each wave, when the water is clear and you can see into every part of it. It’s different at night, it becomes a blackened mirror reflecting only the images of those awake long enough to see it, and it’s much more humble- to show off other people.

In the Deep South
There is always a woman
In an apron calling out to her kids
Warning them to hurry in
Or the corn bread might get cold
The kids couldn’t care either way
And at their age
Food doesn’t taste as good as
The marshes feel around their ankles

They’re just young enough to be nourished
Off of adventure alone
With sticks in hand
Grazing the tops of half-way grown
Up to their heads wheat

In the Deep South the outside
Is still the Wild West
Where you can walk a few blocks
From your front yard
To deserted boulevards
You can’t but a greeting card
From.
And among all the untamed
Nature and desolate fields and lakes
There is so much space
For kids to create

In the Deep South
Kids see broken down Chevys
As breeched kingdoms
Open fields as battle grounds
Littered with rocks that look like grenades
Every vacant marsh a ****** planet
Where you use overall clasps
As radios to your fellow astronauts.

Why would anyone be in a rush
To come home
To something so real
As Mama’s cornbread.

Blue ridges rolling
To picturesque blue skies and
Islands laced in sand

I, like a robin in late fall, flew south
To escape memories of northern snows

I discovered mountain vistas, breathless
Oceans as warming as tropical seas
Food made with love and fresh ingredients
And old friends whom I met for the first time

The snows will fall as sure as I'll miss ya'll
Yet the heat of Dixie forever warms my soul

Caroline loves the ocean.  
Her soul sails on a Carolina breeze.
But her music's in the mountains,
and her heart's back home
where it needs to be.

I'm stuck here
in a Carolina wind,
wading in the ocean
with my heart in Tennessee,
and my mind on Caroline.

Carolina's got everything
a man could want.
Everything he needs.
It's got the mountains and the ocean.
It has a Carolina breeze.

He has everything but Caroline;
everything but Tennessee.

r ~ 6/22/14