Set your aim well
narrow your eyes to see
where hatreds dwell.

It's everywhere in the land
with guns in our hand
we are fighting a war
brother against brother
a battle without cessation
nation against nation
settle with the bullet
more right is which faith
decide with gunfire
which race is placed higher
for centuries the same story
battles make bulk history.

Races raged cities burned
but we never learn
to build one world city
one humanity
only aim further well
narrow our eyes to see
where differences dwell.

I listened to the iron rooster
spinning in the wind wondering
who would climb the roof
and take him in, or would he roost
with strangers in the house

It was so cold
the chicken water froze over

The women made coffee
and the men went out to the shed
to look over the tools

No one would sit in her black chair
because it was a bear
that might wake up anytime

She died in the middle of the night

The doctor said her heart blew out
like a jar of preserves

Before dawn I laid my head
on the hard couch by the cast iron
stove and heard her coming down
the stairs with her cane and her teeth
in a glass on the way to the outhouse
saying *Who took my flashlight?

Vanilla vowels
and creamy colored consonants

Naughty or nutty nouns
of almonds, apples, apricots

Aphrodisiac adjectives
and very berry adverbs

Passion fruit  phrases
pirouette like peaches in thought

A pomegranate patter
that pronounces a pronoun

Or perhaps in veiled vines
velvet verbs purr

Wondrously whipped
words of love

Salacious sentences  
with strawberry stirred

A mellowed musk melon
of a metaphor

A salubrious simile
sits like a sapote crown

Amorous alliterative adventures  
with romance and raisins

An ooh la la of orange oomph
onomatopoeic sounds

An orchard of the alphabets
in a fruity potpourri of speech

A bearish pearish play and
plum pun on words

The language of love
written with love

In this hash mash
bonhomie
Valentine verse

Here I am

by the sea

Shanghaied

from the mountains

a long ways

from loving

let the record read

I'm ****** if I don't

and ****** if I do

and let the moon

hide in my boot.

At a table, you and I,
Flickering candles sigh.
The look of love in your eyes,
All truth, no lies belie.
I, within me, turn and stir,
As your eyes whisper.
Reason lulls, the mind blurs,
In sweet passion's murmurs.
With loves fingers, I dare trace
The blush on my face.
Our eyes, in gentle haste,
Locked in loves embrace.

While light and dark shadows play.
No words need you say,
It is just you and I,
I can see it in your eyes.

The flickering candles taper, like the setting sun,
But for you and I, the night has just begun.

proud buck
frozen, close
heart in my
cross hairs

I squeeze
the trigger.
nothing
happens

except birdsong

as if
they know
some doe was saved
from widowhood

by a
mystic
misfire

She seems strong - so she speaks,
She seems alive with life complete.
She shrugs a shoulder, couldn't care,
Love is war, a life's  dare,
She has loved and seen it go,
Love wilt in the midst of snow...
But say goodbye, gently, if you will,
Her heart is warm, fragile still.

She has laughed and she has smiled,
Dreamed enchantment on an isle.
She has risen,  heights soared,
She has seen closed doors.
She has fallen, again, to stand,
Dreamed a dream in never land...
But tread softly, on her, if you will,
Her dreams are young, fragile still.

She has seen loss and pain,
Prayers lost,  hopes slain.
Her heart in hands, she has wept,
Tired and weary, troubled, slept.
Transience is eternal, well she knows,
But her heart stronger never grows...
Break her  gently, if you will.
Her heart is tender and fragile still.