She stands where the river blows her hair wild

no youth and no favor for her
no hands to clean the salt licks on her skin
her palms are dreams wrinkled dry
yet craving an offer.

You come from a distant land, she says,
heavens bless you.

I got no small change, I respond,
my mind drifts to ponder,

a small change, I need that too,
always hungered for
and faltered through
like I missed the vessel narrowly
to be on the river's other side.

Maybe when I come back,
I turn toward her.

She was gone.

a grey dove now coos
on the deep cream painted fence
neath a light cloud sky

"where love is.... a jealous girl
of the wind."

i.

falling like a leaf
that sings to the sky
the cresting wave
draws down,
the honey sea
a miracle of dance.

ii.

deep vision of blue,
caves of grey iron,
the waters pool,
drifting with the
icy wind.  

iii.

sharp vowel of
frozen earth,
the songful
depths of winter
sink like the seas,
the dark notes
of the clouds an
accent above the
vaulting hills.

iv.

i sink like the seas
before your love,
my knees trembling,
my legs aroused,

i am a storm that
gathers the
horizons of your
sky, burnt into the
honeycombs of
the wind full of
winter
song.

v.

the sky must sigh,
the wind whisper
to the sea; “take
me home.”

vi.

i see you and my
body melts, your
love the breath of
the sea, the magical
tides of the clouds.