Amidst the redwoods finite upward stretch,
streams of light grace darkened ground
where golden beams and deepened greens together catch
the promise of new sapling can be found.

Between these giants’ towering cast
that sovereign sunlights aid,
mighty limbs direct where any rain might pass,
and whether light gives way to shade.

His feeble roots take what they may,
with time enough to grasp only shallow sheet of earth.
And though by slightest breeze he’ll fro and sway,
he takes protection by his elders timely girth.

And, if looked upon by eyes with mind that couldn't know,
it may seem these ancient elder trees never had to, like the sapling grow.
For the way they stand against wind and gale it might serve as a surprise,
that they hadn’t always stood that way, that they like sapling, had to rise.

It was by passing years their rugged hide is earned and just.
And while saplings' leafy shade may be a lighter green,
and though his tawny bark be invisible to their upward eyes as of thus,
against the elders' ever richer jade, lest by my gaze, he can be seen.

Moons pass while sapling takes only what his patriarchs bestow,
It’s with patience he waits for the dusky day that he too shall finally grow.

Then all at once- he reaches and, with casted shadow of his own,
no more is he cloaked by his elders grander silhouette.
Alas, his quiet presence is timely to them shown,
they will see this sapling yet!

We met deep in the desert,
Our love was water cupped in your hands.
Fresh and cool you held it
But it slipped into the sands.

It trickled through your fingers,
And fell in droplets from your wrists.
The cool then only lingered,
as you tried to clench it in your fists.

The arid ground then drank our fallen water up with greed,
Your hands open in surrender left the remaining moisture freed.
And so I was left to stand alone, my throat parched and aching dry,
Hot air began to fill my lungs and sands stung at my eyes.

For a moment I blinked away the grains enough to see,
And that was when I realized that you were still standing next to me.
So I let my eyes fill again with sand, and then the tears began to fall.
Because you’d been by my side all along, but weren’t ever there at all.

So I said the words to make you leave, though they were all untrue
And you knew they were but you still left and I won’t chase after you.
And so I cried for you and us and those tears, like our love, fell cool and wet.
They came and stayed and watered all the ground where we first met.
One day they stopped falling, and I wondered if perhaps they should still be there
But they’ve evaporated, like our love had done, into the deserts' air.

You are carlights through white window shades,
You’re moonlight on the shore.
You are sun before rain had a chance to fade,
You’re bare feet at ocean’s floor.

Your voice echos atop the hollow waves
that we sleep to every night.
Your laugh is your heavy heart being saved,
all silver shadows fighting golden candles’ light.

I am grays and blues and evergreens,
I’m early sunlight reflected in clear eyes.
I am ever changing and ever seen,
I am pastels trapped inside thick black smoky ties.

We are a single whispered chord, retuned and redefined,
We are coastal byways and yellow dotted swerving lines.
We are deep navy skies inhaled by wintry crystal night,
We are watercolors cooled by the sea then cast in firelight.

I want to see your wholeness
I want to feel your width
I want you to encompass me
I want us to exist

You'll show them who I am
We'll show them our own true
You don't have to be alone
While I show them a better you

You'll be swift and you'll be free
I can make you want to run
I’ll tug the stars ‘til you can reach them
I’ll make the whole sky come undone

I want to breathe you in
Then I want to drink you down
I want the moon to wake us
I don’t want to be found