we dance dust about the details of each day

we clasp hands and sing our tiny songs

we are quick to remember but even quicker to forget

one day the earth will quietly ask to take me back

to offer quiet closure

perhaps with the promise of a star spark or a cloud igniting in a sunset

perhaps i will receive nothing at all

when this body rinses from these bones i shall be far away

or I shall be right beside you

mystery is as simple as that

october is my youngest month
i fly a thousand kites of color

i fill the sky in great spills of paint
i breathe as if for the very first time

my child heart beats in time
with the wings of birds now arrowing south

my hands dig deeply into the open pumpkin
and my soul glows like a votive candle

pushing light gently out

sometimes when i miss my mother
i feel for the pulse on the wrist of my wife
hers is steady and strong
  
waiting there
as my mother slowly slipped away
a nurse taught me how to find the pulse

in her final moments
when she stopped breathing
her heart ceased beating
and her pulse faded away
i felt it in my fingertips

so now

sometimes when i miss my mother
i feel for the pulse on the wrist of my wife
hers is steady and strong  
and i know exactly where to find it

She’s a room of golden light,
but one drawer stays shut tight.

She laughs like wind through open doors,
yet guards a key beneath the floor.

I never ask, I never pry
some stars were made to burn and lie.

Still, I stay, though I can't see
the secret she keeps away from me.

Someone I loved once gave to me
A box of night, no lock, no key.
I held it close with trembling hands
Not knowing then its strange demands.

It whispered cold, it swallowed light
It taught me silence, sleepless nights.
I cursed its weight, I grieved its cost
A symbol of the love I’d lost.

But seasons turned, as seasons do
And cracks let in a deeper truth.
Within that dark, a seed was sown
A strength I never would have known.

Now looking back, I see it clear
The gift was pain, the gift was fear.
But in its heart, a truth would lift
That even sorrow hides a gift.

Slowly , slowly the sun awakens
Lighting the soft,dark ,velvet night
Blowing out the stars like candles
Dimming the light of the silver moon

Gently waking the birds from their slumber
To sing their joyful morning song
Shedding its light high over the treetops
Beckoning to the flowers below

Shining on the dew laden grass
Glistening like a carpet of diamonds
Like millions of prisms catching a rainbow
Such beauty to behold

Spreading its light , spreading its warmth
Turning the sky to azure blue
Casting its rays to light the day
It's morning's work is done

Slowly , slowly the sun dips down
Heralding  the end of another day
Gently stroking all life to sleep
Beckoning the soft, dark, velvet night