Chipmunks: Adorable, furry daredevils. Or dumb.

Sometimes I start to think.
But then I burst a vessel and that's the end of that.

Winter means cold
It means staticky hair and red noses
But it also means you and me by the fire.

Gushing young vermillion hearts
Like seals in dark cold waves
Bobbing up abruptly
And then lost

If people were trees,
You'd be a pine.
Ancient, scraggly, thick-skinned
Thick-skulled.
But you remind me of Christmas.

Quick, snag the highest apple, duck down.
Red on one side, green on the other.
Bite savagely into the green,
A lone apple tear trickles from the corner
Of shiny pink lips.
Stolen apple kiss.

Few things that are constant
are appreciated for long.
Sun in California
is much too commonplace.
"I love you" loses meaning
over time.
But there is some comfort
in the constant.
And fleeting, ephemeral beauties
are sad and fearful.
Which is why people love the ocean.

Waves are never quite the same.
Each one is unique, and always changing.
There and gone in a few seconds' time.
But they are never more
than a few heartbeats apart,
and rarely much different from the last.
The ocean strikes balance
between the dynamic and changing
and the constant and reliable.
And we all love balance.