Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?

When you come to me, unbidden,
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.

Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,

I cry.

The other day
quite unexpectedly
while rummaging through an old chest of drawers
I stumbled upon a picture of you
And stopped short -

It was about as old as me
dog-eared and quite yellowed
peeking out of a diary long forgotten.

You looked positively
overcome with delight
crinkle-eyed and gap-toothed
frozen in time
grinning gleefully at our dad
on the other side of the camera lens

IT’s not raining yet
but it’s about to.
people hurry home
shooting quick glances at the sky.

but not she!

she has been dreaming
of the kisses of water droplets all summer.
she is determined to stand here
no umbrella, no raincoat,
with arms outstretched -
to welcome the monsoons.

habits are hard to break/
and the effort and the time it takes/
to break the loop your brain has subconsciously traced/
are far more than the time it took for the habit to form in the first place

You are brief and frail and blue--
  Little sisters, I am, too.
You are Heaven's masterpieces--
  Little loves, the likeness ceases.

on a day like this
it's easy to be at peace.
breathe in:
breathe out.

a walk downhill
in the crisp winter air:
fills the lungs
and clears the head.