this morning I mistook
my streetlight shining through
the Summer leaves
for the full moon
and for a few seconds
I believed she was off her track

morning dove
or is it the mourning dove?
speaks this morning
of melancholy
rock and sheep
and a drunken friend
who each night
ended his day
the same

each minute
was nothing I knew
it was the sound of the bells,
around their necks
and from the church.
Above in the abandoned castle,
defenses down
in rooms
open to the sky
looking down
on the village life
the smell of the beach
fish and retsina
the wisteria sheltered agora

I came there
like the gypsies
we never saw
who snuck in at night
took our clothing
off the lines
and potted plants
from the patio,
leaving only what was missing
as evidence
they'd been there

What do birds see?
perhaps more than we can know
and what of their dreams?
are they full of worms
and juicy slugs?
are there also nightmares
of predators and windstorms
destroying all they've built?

given a choice
I'd probably be a robin
waking in that well built nest
shared with eggshell blue
waiting for the warmth
the return
of the reddish feathered breast

or perhaps a catbird
is closer to my truth
a wordy bird
behind the black bead of an eye
taking it all in
confident
Arizona will be there

yes
the door is unlocked
come on in
and take
what pleases you

its a currency of sorts

the candle's burning
off the exhalations
we've done before

I am
feathers stuffed
in a pillow
a colony of ants
in a rotten log
pieces of gravel
in a limestone block
waiting to be crushed
words in an unread book
describing lives lived
a vase ready to be broken
into its many pieces
the packed earth
entered by a *****
and water seeping under a door
only to evaporate

I often had dinner
with my ninety four year old father
at the nursing home,
who,  towards the end
had little to say.
what he said
was mostly incoherent
and softly spoken.
after one dinner,
where little was said,
we sat together,
he in his wheelchair,
I in a lounger,
in the lobby,
in front of the television,
digesting,
he turned to me,
and said,

"I didn't think this would go on so long."