He held my hand
Just for a little while
Or a drop of his eternity
Drew me close into his space
Made my toes set on edge
Made my body arch and lean
Into his perfect embrace
Into the crescent of his shape
Our eyes made silent journeys
Meeting and stealing small glances of light
While our mouths sought each other
Lost in the landscape of our faces
He bent down and his lips brushed mine
Sending wildfire through my spine
Sending wildfire through my spine
Awakening shivers in my spirit
And the sky held its breath then, and turned itself
Into the deep blue of night
And the stars came to spy on us
Running on silver shoes
While their whispers made constellations
Out of our story

Ease yourself unto my spirit
Gather your folds closely
I long to whisper secrets of myself to you
In the voice of an old woman
I will be wide eyed, turban tied
Sitting on the stoop of an old porch
Long skirt over knees
Watching empty streets
Fingers long, thin--wrinkled paper
Wrapped smartly round a cigar
Seducing smoke to the sky

She and He
Betrothed at first glance and
Married between the racing of seconds
Gathered the skirts of the sky
Fashioned them into cloaks
and visited the place
where life in instants reside
hoping to invoke a fear so strong
that minutes would cease to chase
their perfect circles
concentric with hours, days
to settle instead in a cloud of life suspended
moments engaged in salutations

To have moved
Even ever so slightly
Would set the gears of life atop whirlwinds
And so She and He stand still
Locked underneath
Their blanket of stars
Thirsting ever so slightly for one another
Inching ever so slightly for one another
Hoping ever so much
To move

I am NOT
yet the mirror lies
in front with sly a mouth  
sly a gaze
THESE piercing eyes
Coals seducing me
Might I drown my depths
in the cool embers
of this fire that never burned

I saw the land
Crazed in a glory of dry Earth
Blistering the soles of my feet as
I tried to replant my roots
Gingerly I stood
Wanting to sink in
Wanting to be engulfed by that which birthed me

I stood at the gate of a home that had forgotten forgetting me
Hearing it branding me with the name that could only be mine
Calling me with the name that should only be mine

And I birthed three children then,
Out of my guttural reserves I echoed three
And laid them bare to the wind
If it pleased to carry them
To an ear with the heart to listen
I tried to replant my roots, as if these feet recognized this soil
With saltine tears I water my roots and lay them out to bake.

I cried while it rained tonight
salty drops out of eye
in time with
the drip drops of the sky
Cried to Sorrow
My recurring visitor

I thought to dare heaven
mock me my tears
in time She replied:
our voices are too singular
our tempos arrhythmic
this song long forgotten

Half looks and stolid glances
Signal our decline
Colors blush, bleed, and grey
Soon as I conjure
There goes orange, purple, blue
Dive, Emerald, clean off the canvas
Escaping me, escaping you

Brushes will not pierce this mundane
Yet, I paint you a butterfly
Emerging from ambient cocoon
Adorned in details, intricate

I loved our details, you know
The feel of your beard 'gainst my cheek
Your breath awaiting at my ear
The mattress under me
Your weight over me
Ecstasy spent

But the air is so close to body temperature
And I can't tell if you're here or there