do not hurry

let your shoes rest
one upside down
the other upright

beside the chair
where your toes
pushed them from your feet

your skirt and blouse
draped across the couch
as you dropped them
inattentively

leave them there
a little longer
reaching
one for the other
not quite touching

let your purse lay
undisturbed

fallen on its side
spilling your lipstick
and sunglasses
across the floor

stay

do not take the colors away
from the world
by your absence

not quite yet

please

give me a moment
to inhale you
one more time

close your eyes

and linger

This terrain is unfamiliar
long vistas of green and golden fields
and to the side dark ravines
quicken alertness and care
to avoid hollow fruitless depths.

A gathering of souls
beckons me back to be among them
to tell of my journey, my vision.

But I carry with me shades of the ravine
attached as doubt.
Someone told me to be myself.
An odd order,
for who else could I be?

Still…
just about the time I think I know
my self
it is eroded by swift waters
sweeping by and into me.

The winds have run away from us
Sailboats and feelings of incompleteness
Are now what we call home
Blue skies kiss the scabs on my knees
I've fallen many times while you were ahead of me
The distance stretches its limbs into the unknown
And I follow the quiet heartbeat
reverberating through my bones

If you listen closely, its reciting those words
And promises I once made to my broken self
It tells me all about my journey across the vast strait
That drains into the storm-loved sea
That bubbles and roars under my skin
I walk through fires and biting forests
As I make my way through everything that I fear

I walk these steps, holding you near
Prayers for you on my tongue
Evaporate into the open breeze
Carrying the hope that you make it through
Everything that obstructs your peace

in the middle of the night, when you can't stand the light of the cross,
let the groan of your body caress the dreams of the water,
with the tears of your fruit,  flood the earth when
your bleached lips untie the prayer of the mind,
and heaven from heaven, - and hell from hell shall cry unto thee
give birth to me, humble delight, let”s build a sacred crown
in the skin of the moon, with red flowers, the baby is born in may,
a broken branch from the stalk of the eclipse, at His mercy, forever,
destiny, lucky star in the mystery of exaltation by words.