the hypnotic intensity of light’s subtlety
holds his disquiet in a trance
as twilight writhes between colorful worlds
in an impossible glowing dance

***** clouds smudge
across heavy skies
laden with tawny soot

sagebrush steppe glows
under jaundiced light
blazing wildfire summer

a frozen flow, like an unfamiliar face
dripping from void to void
sculpts viscous memories from deceitful clay
into echoing tales of a never-was
that bears the fruit of the never-will-be

but perfect waves, like open-endings
are immersed in the possibilities
of living in nothing and no thing
transmuting the phrase "will not be"
into anti-vocabulary

a lily summer blooms on horizons
glistening with mercury and wonder
as waterfowl slow dance in the pale light
of a dying and star-crossed moon
to the hollow echoes of ill-fated waterfalls
that refuse to surrender to tidal gravity
and in the end, it all means nothing

but the sun still rises
and his childhood eyes open
brimming with curious wonder

the fires of yesterday
reach through the gulf of night
with acrid fingers of smoke
and ember-glowing eyes

whispering like a reality that never was
or a game that never ends
played by a life that is never lost

and in the tongue of forgotten souls
they speak in uncertain terms
of charcoal hearts and burned-out love

for they no longer see the living now
or believe in the promise of tomorrow
failing to see the glowing light
that dwells in their own ember eyes

though veiled by the clouds of silence
her full moon heart rises in his mind
and by faith alone, he offers all he is
to the invisible brilliance of her love
as she beckons from the darkness
with tendrils of stillness and peace