She picked it up from the seashore.
He encouraged her,
Flattered her with indulgence
To bring back her dying flame.
A girl once again,
She brought it home
In whimsically ebullient innocence!
On the polished floor
In a faraway city
It found it hard to walk
With the load of mollusk
And made a funny sight!
It strained its ears
But there was no sound of the sea,
No saline smell in the air,
Instead the water was sweet and insipid.
It went thirsty.
The food was alien,
It went hungry.
Soon they polished the shell
And celebrated addition of
Another showpiece in their room!
The crab had at last
Found a new home.

...And with the passing of the Solstice
I'm left to wonder...
winter...

Birds do not yet have the news
singing as if it all goes on forever

But the wind has told the chimes
who whisper it to the trees

Will the rain never stop?
I sigh
and hear the cat snoring
in her box
The room is breathing just enough
I sigh and listen to it
racing through the eves
my thoughts
are rain
My house --  too quiet for it
My life?
My Love?
I am too tired to be restless

Drifting in mosaic
Tea berry
green  grows
between rotting leaves and pine needles
Everything is rain
I never get to hold...

Lantern on a Rock

Sometimes I would look at him and know--
by his focus in the distance--
more often than we knew--

Alone
and far off
in the hills of Hatfield
walking with a stick
and can of bait in hand
Past some fields of corn and shade tobacco
like a **** along the road
he made his way

Sometimes to accompany the sun
toward its western home
He lay across Old Jerry's withers
as they clopped along
watching it set over the Connecticut
that curled its orange meandering
around the mountains
of imagining
its contentment

Later
after mother made the diner
with all the colors of a summer's glory
he went fishing in the moonlight
of his youth
with dearest friends

Lantern on a rock
of memory
to light the way