Be,
As a love
Whom together,
Discovers
The art of sin

Ask,
Not of the wrongs
Nor rights
But,
If the sweet cherry
Seeps or flows

Approach,
A figure, yet
Merely a reflection
In fruits,
Not leaves

Gaze,
Vanilla cream
Opposing,
One robust
In darkness
And desire

Fuse,
The sensation
Of honey dancing
Upon buds,
Of taste

Addiction,
The willingness
To enable,
The expedition
And art of sin

Under the gentle hug of a cherry blossom spring
She found herself while lost at sea.
Rain soaks through her precious skin
As the wooden raft rocks over violent waves.

‘Breathe…’ she murmurs to herself.
The cotton touch of grass wraps around her fingers.

Her mind snaps back to the terrible terrain.
Lost. Bewildered. Endangered.
Unsafe as those who hang from tall places,
as scared as those who beg to rich faces.

‘Breathe…’ she murmurs to herself.
The sun and moon exhale.
Their whispers kiss her lips.
Her body enveloped in natures tender care
While chemicals fight with angered cries.

The wooden planks break.
The sea removes her breath.
Drowning in the face of it all
While her lungs are filled with water.

‘Breathe…’ she murmurs to herself.
‘What’s wrong with here and now?’
A leaf falls down and greats her body.
Like a warm day,
She glows.

to stand beneath a sunlit
flowering cherry
is to stand in the
presence of
god

I Have a Yong Suster
(anonymous Medieval English riddle-poem, circa 1430)
translation by Michael R. Burch

I have a young sister
Far beyond the sea;
Many are the keepsakes
That she sent me.

She sent me the cherry
Without any stone;
And also the dove
Without any bone.

She sent me the briar
Without any skin;
She bade me love my lover
Without longing.

How should any cherry
Be without a stone?
And how could any dove
Be without a bone?

How should any briar
Be without a skin?
And how could I love my lover
Without longing?

When the cherry was a flower,
Then it had no stone;
When the dove was an egg,
Then it had no bone.

When the briar was unborn,
Then it had no skin;
And when a maiden has her mate,
She is without longing!

This poem was sung in the movie "Animal House" by a college troubadour played by Stephen Bishop. A toga-clad John Belushi destroyed his guitar! Keywords/Tags: riddle, medieval, Middle English, young, sister, cherry, stone, dove, bone

Cherry blossoms fall from trees
In a beautiful scene
Mixing with lilacs
And the scent of lavender
I waited for you to come here
Waited when the snow fell
And before that, the leaves
It feels as though I am stuck here
For all eternity

I watch cherry blossoms
Fall from the tree above my head
Look for your halo of beautiful blond hair
Your amazing blue eyes
That shown me through the darkest night
Cherry blossoms fall
Marking you vanity

I wait for you to come
Under this cherry tree
Where we first met
I know that we're locked up
In a self-induced quarantine
But I'll wait while the blossoms fall
Wait for you to find me
Under the shade of these pink blossoms
That showed me shade
In times of light

Petals flurried in the wind,
gusts rushing white clouds.
A final hoo-rah,
a perfect storm
before bare branches.

We sit and watch,
petals in our hair,
mischievous tendrils of air whipping.
We sit and watch
with wonder, this blessing,

yet we forget our own.