Now mind is clear
as a cloudless sky.
Time then to make a
home in wilderness.

What have I done but
wander with my eyes
in the trees? So I
will build:  wife,
family, and seek
for neighbors.

                     Or I
perish of lonesomeness
or want of food or
lightning or the bear
(must tame the hart
and wear the bear).

And maybe make an image
of my wandering, a little
image—shrine by the
roadside to signify
to traveler that I live
here in the wilderness
awake and at home.

Soft are the wings of the firefly princess
Twilight the scene of her flickering dance
Pine needle whispers aflutter of springtime
Alone on this evening in search of romance

Warm April breezes caressing her body
Slumbering daffodils, gold leaf embossed
Shining, her beacon illumines the valley
Twinkling sorrow of love she had lost

Wandering sadly neath evergreen niches  
Shadows and silhouettes bend at her glow
Hard to imagine her tiny heart broken
Far from the beauty this night she does show

When then she sees him alone on a hillside
A pen in his hand as he quietly writes
Silently floating, she lands on his shoulder
Kind is his face that her glow gently lights

Noticing teardrops upon his cheeks falling
“Why are you crying?” she asks him sincere
Startled, he looks at her, eyes wet and weary
“Oh little firefly, what has brought you here?”

He turned away gazing up at the moonlight
Then shook his head as more words he wrote down
“I miss her so much,” he said in a whisper
His mouth once he finished returned to a frown

She knew how he felt for her heart it was broken
One winter’s evening, a cold misty day
Taken from sleep by her jealous big sister
Evil her magic had whisked him away

Just then she noticed that things felt familiar
Something about him jarred her memory
It can not be, visions rambled within her
This can not be my love taken from me  

“If I may ask sir, please when did you lose her?”
She fluttered her wings so excited to hear
Her light now as bright as the full moon above them
Here on this hillside the skies ever clear

“It’s hard to remember, but sometime last winter,
a sorceress came on the solstice I think
From by her side I was suddenly taken,
found myself here just as quick as a wink”

“Since then I’ve cried on this hillside we frolicked,
writing her poetry, words how I feel
Sorrow and sadness in harmonic phrases,
verses my broken heart could not conceal”

“The saddest part is, it is merely a feeling,
only the love is what I can recall
I know she was real for my heart does remind me,
the rest is a blur, almost nothing at all”

She thought and she thought of her wicked old sibling
Remembering tears drops from lovers that fell
When mixed together might change what had happened
Glistening together, they could break the spell

She took one of hers that she saved since December
Flew to his cheek were a steady stream flowed
Placed her own teardrop within his now weeping
To her amazement, his body it glowed

Shimmering sparkles like fireworks bursting
A magical sheen filled the heavens above
A blink of her eye and he changed right before her
He now was a firefly, the one that she loved

His eyes grew as wide as a sunflower smiling
Flapping his wings like he’d never before
Looking at her, his light brightly was gleaming
He said, “I remember, you’re the one I adore”

He was so happy, he flew up and kissed her
“I missed you,” he said “never leave me again
We’ll fly and we’ll hide far away from your sister”
Then he looked down and he noticed his pen

He lifted it up and then flew to the paper
Flapping his wings he penned one final line
It read that they lived happily ever after
From now in this moment, till the end of time

Within the centre of your being
May you find peace
Every act of unconditional love
Echoes in eternity
Spread your wings and dance
Dreams into reality
If your situation  won't change
Then change yourself
The optimist is often as wrong
As the pessimist
But he is far far happier
Choose happiness

.

*Music written to
the sound of the rain,
patters of notes upon
slick windowpanes
mesmerizing a day
of reminiscence,
when two hearts
danced between
the steady drizzle

Drenched in the key
of lost moments
playing over and over
in the saturated symphonies
of my mind’s
harmonic sadness
un-tuned melodies echo
through puddles collected
within a cappella fingers

.

*What ever happened to fairy tale endings
When did the sun bring the cold winter chill
Why are kind gesturers an act of  pretending
How did our heartbeats become ever still

Where is the joy that we found ourselves sharing
Happiness falling on much darker days
Meadows of flowers now weeds never caring
Blue skies are hidden behind sorrowed haze

Dreams slowly scattered on desolate oceans
Washed up on shore as the sandcastles die
Tossed overboard with the weakest emotions
Salt coated tears the horizon does cry

Once perfect mornings now afternoon weary
Gazing on edges cut sharp by the storm
Forecasts are sent in a poem that’s dreary
Standing afraid as the thunderclouds form

Hiding our eyes behind last April’s fashion
No cotton fabric for sale on the rack
Finding that drab is our lone source of passion
Marked down for clearance way out in the back

When did we give up on promises pending
Taking a place after push comes to shove
What ever happened to fairy tale endings
What ever happened to forever love

.

Where will the circus fall,
leaving giraffes homeless,
as pitched tents get pitched
and sideshow freaks
become the norm,
guessing someone’s weight
who doesn’t care

When the sun sets
tablecloth desires
on a silverware runway
with dishes made of gold
and wine glasses half full
are spilled in sad regrets

Will I walk alone
on a cobblestone road,
counting windows without shades
laced with flat screen televisions
tuned to the wrong channel,
reruns in Technicolor

Broadcasting seeded visions
in open fields of tall grass
when Eric Burdon sang
and cherry trees once stood
producing the fruit
of a past I no longer
want to see

Where will the circus fall,
where will I fall