On this morning,
where the road's
reflecting gold

I think of all the
promises I've
made myself,
the sun, a draping
curtain over daybreak

and I wrap a scarf
around my neck
and hold my bony
hands
against my heart

It's October and
I've learned to love
myself again.

My stomping grounds is
the Umpqua
where
we're
Daughters.
Sisters.
Friends.
and Lovers.

In the Umpqua Valley where we're
Men who
work in
lumber yards
and sweat
the day
away

Where we come home
at Autumn's dusk
and put dinner on
the stove and
send our kids
to school next
day

where we felt like they were
safe
the next day

My hometown is
Roseburg
where
we're now
known for
a violence that
doesn't exist in us
but now defines us

where you've spoken on your lips the place that
cultivated me
that is me.

Roseburg and the Umpqua
aren't synonymous with
tragedy,
but my God,
what a tragedy.

They say
the blood moon
is a bad omen-

hanging in
the sky
on the other
side
of a permanent
polluted
lens, a
filter
that we've made
and now is how
we must
enjoy the
stars

Red Moon,
Dear Red Moon behind
Earth's dusty
curtain,
I don't know what it means
or why the color
rouge
effects me, so

but I can feel the
black sky
crawling, moving, dancing,
a pendant against stars it cannot
touch and continuing
to blush in
rose.

You're a
dark
cavern,
where I have
to
breathe a
little deeper
or risk not
breathing at all

as I am trying
to make my way
through the
black, an endless
cave of what-comes-next
(I have no idea
     of what comes next),
I know
that
If you gave me more
time,
you could (maybe)
love
me
too

it's here against
the grotto
that is
nudging me
and slowly
pushing into
me, my eyes
adjust to the
darkness that is
you

You were standing,
a silhouette against
the icy blue of
a northwest bay-
the most beautiful
shoreline you've seen,
you said,
and love, do I
agree.

even standing
by this ocean,
in this dew-drop
forest I
call home,
overwhelmed
by Oregon's
beauty once
again-

I'm taken aback because
you're so beautiful.

and all I can possibly
see
is you.