my spiritual heart creates
tondo    a constant
whirl
reaching into my soul
depths.   refining
cleaning
glistering
me
preparing me
anointing me
washing my feet

my heart is a tondo
circulates my essences
infinitely
in my body
washing me

the brain is a tondo
that dies last
after killing the body
from
inside
out
washing me

for my death


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

mother’s crustiness sometimes
stretches too far
sometimes bleeds fire
and lava runs to scorch mother’s skin

she ignites her anger
warns her children in hellish flows
to keep them safe from
her fumeroles
sacrifices herself to let them
live

and
smiles from her heart eyes
that see it all


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

cypress gets to its knees
to pray for breath
without it, breadth is not attained and
age falls away

oxygen becomes important
when rooted trees have not-enough
so
boscoyos come up from the bosque
as kneeded

how do I breathe for you
now?
you won’t root me in your soul
to
let me come up from your swampy
depth to fill your need

or mine


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

a fantasy of love is
a sinkhole
full of water and deaths,
of hearts torn in sacrifice to
false gods, human gods,
indignities, caricatures of reality

I gave everything to them
believing
because it was easier,
because it was the program,
the curriculum,
the single choice available to me

it made of me a cenote,
drowned my heart in waters
caught
by the stony hole
in the indifferent jungle

sank me
in a deep blue hole
waiting to be discovered
by you, who made
of me a treasure, a precious cargo
priceless
worthy
beloved


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

it’s like,
I ride songs into sweet
remembers
of my daddy
of my friends
of my sister, and my twin

I float in a star-strewn nebula,
a compostella, each star
a different scene and cast,
each a member of my asterism of
memories
each and all beloved
clear as the ringing of a bell
flooding my eyes with tears
of sorrow and joy and laughter

I ride music like
a flying carpet lifts on the magical,
gently carrying my heart
into the beauty and sorrow and laughter
of Love lost and
Love found


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

my heart is a codex full
page after page
of hieroglyphs of Love
a lucifer bearing my light in
pictures
words
symbols of a soul
and eyes
opened to Love
by Love


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

a flock needs its truth made plain
to follow
through the mists and snows
of Life
over trails unknown and
dangers unseen

and needs the staff and rod
of honesty
to guide it through
rocky rivers and gorges cut deep
from stone

Love is a bellwether
that leads us to its fold


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater