My mother
Vanished into a blackbird
Her song
Shattered
Her frailty on display

My arms turned to branches
But she did not land

She wasn't mine
She was never mine

Her answers
Mounted the wind beyond her wing-tips
The sky is wounded
Her daughters
Briefly turned to doves
To see her off

Now she is a deflowered figurine
Capsized & silent
A ornamental memory
An iridescent spark
In the pocket of my heart

___________

I heard it in the wind
To leave
And leave again

I knew it was love
When you tap danced
To the edge of my heart with a sassy shrug

I knew it was love
When the beach became my lungs
The water, my lips
The salt, my tongue

I knew it was love
When your kisses met my face
As soft as snowflakes
When I followed my mouth
To each crease of your body

I knew it was love
When you balanced on my limbs
And forgave me
For what I had forgotten to ask

I knew it was love
When all rehearsal was refused
And you opened the drawers
Of your body
To wash & fold my words

I knew it was love
When - after the wine
The crickets honorably remained silent
And your secret fragility
Like a candle
Lifted me out of what was missing

___________

The theatre curtains of our eyes
Open to the rays of white & light
To the flesh & romance
That is Trunk bay

Her heavenly enchantment
Has us at ease
& we fasten our gaze
To the birth of all things beautiful
Holding hands in her turquoise waves
We happily collapse under the courtship
To the promise of love
To the subtle touch of the heart
As delicate as a humming bird's wing

Out here
Deadlines have no meaning -
We listen to her wisdom
Her elegant, rhythmic mantra
Making love in her sea -
Our laughter billowing out before our tongues
As she molds us into angels
Granting us wings where we once had shoulders
& now she calls on us to pray

__________

We collapse
Into the crevasses
On the French Quarter -
A blooming overture
With her fluttering
Voodoo pageantry & Uneven streets

I reach for your hand
Anchored by the warm bursts
Of intimacy -
Your smile mixed with
The hushed breeze of Decatur Street

We are deposited between the shoulder blades -
The spine of all hours
The hours that orbit us
In this moment -
Like the fragility of ash, fleeting -
Our hearts enchanted
We drink in the city

Her testimony
Is surreal, yet familiar
She opens
She reveals, reassures
Yet maintains
The dignity of mystery:
The secret of which
Is her pearl of beauty

We are charmed
In the corridors
Of her jaded artisans
From the brass sousaphones
To the beignets of
Cafe Du Monde

Even the rain
(which wets deeper
Than any rose can hide)
Gives rise
To the flecks of our laughter
Flowering up To the surface of our hotel

We have surrendered to her adventure
We perch where we can see
We
Agree

_________

Even in silence
We honor the words
That have come
Between us

The silence
That covers our bodies
Without complexity

Removing the fabrics that bind us -
While the world sleeps
Revealing secrecy

Our breathing hastens
Falls to the floor of my heart
As natural
As dew on the fields of morning
I gather these moments
Polish them
Then hang them on the wind

___________

Our aquaintance is the canopy
Which spills across like romance -
There is no need to explain

We interrupt calamity  
We dot the beach with hands clapsed
To keep all things luminous

Anticipation is the chocolate
The interval that pivots to point
The way
There is white icing between our words
Motion between our whispers
A butterfly kiss on the spine

The gift of idle evenings
Gives way to the flowers
That bow their heads
As we honor your birthday

No one rehearses getting older
Let's laugh & grow younger instead

The ocean has a swagger
Her static
Comes across the rooftops of her waves
Her ferocity is my applause
There are whispers scattered in her water -
Surrender in her sensuality
My nerves are stripped wires -
Sensitive to the touch
The pleasure leaves lasting fingersprints within.
She compensates
She elevates
I wake under the weight
Of her hands
We are kin
Made of stardust -
Phosphorescent
Celestrial
The flame of a misplaced diamond
To the gloom of her moon of misfortune
Reflected in my Buddha nature
The way out
Is the way in
The way out
Is the way in

_________

The treachery of over-staying a welcome
Is as unforgiveable
As the closing of night
       or the blossom that parts  

Leaving ribbons of kisses
Only to return for them again.
& we laugh at the skeletons
Hanging idle in our closets -
We dress them in silly clothes
& amusing poses
To reduce their power

Now we take shelter
In the sheets of your bed
I am constructing my movements
From the blueprint of your body

We commune in to defeat grief  
We trespass & disrespect the mundane
A new ritual -
From San Pablo rd
To the sea
I lean into you
You lean into me

_________

This Guitar is the conduit
Both sacred & profane
She can punish or soothe

She is a mirror
And what I offer, she offers
My blood is her blood
From the lilac to the skyscraper
She can make the bright stars lazy
With the slightest shrug

She is the ignition of affection
Her elegance so grand
It makes one feel *****

Her swagger sweeps me up
Enclosed in her murmur
Her breath is my crescent moon
Her wine, my time

_______

We laugh
& hold hands
On the beaches of Marco Island

We've slipped into the pages of a novel
This chapter has sun
This paragraph -
Sand & serenity
We sink into our beach chairs
Only to crush on the energy
The cadence of the waves
Reflected in her eyes
Where the gold light spreads
Arresting my affection -
My words performing
Restless
Having been asleep for so long
Drifting thru the tide
With the will,
The blessing,
The estate of the promise
Of a provisional paradise

Your lips part
& the words arrive
Dotting my mind -
Like a songbird
I take notice
I bristle

It is the beginning of all flowers
The beginning of the wind
That parted the palm trees

This is the time
When we learn
There is nothing else to ask for.
We sift the sand -
Our words turning to dust

& later the moonlight
Breathes us in
As it has always done.
The elegant night
Comes to a close
& we surrender unto each other
We commit
To a constant beginning

_____

Concealed in the pearl of your routine
Like a carnation of melody -
The honey hive
& the threat of the sting
This wild rose
North star lover
Bonfire of destiny
and the summit of all things joyous

The loneliness from which we are abscent
Smoldering like the  
Shadow of a lone sparrow

Growing acustom to your climate
And the scent that ignites
My restless heart

The rain undresses me
& when you close your eyes
I fall asleep

______

The dim fragility of grace
Begins between voice & lips
Swallowing the distance between us -
We push back the walls of shadow
With a whisper
Tangled in the romance of hope
Which burns at the edge of sleep

Our future, with no voice of its own
Is sent to us as a gift
It undresses us
Passes thru
Like an internal wind
and like the lilac
We bend

__

It resides where the heart raves
Where the pulse pauses
The blood thickens
And the cadence of one's breath
Beckons

Getting *****  
Never felt so divine
So luminous -
We bend the knee
To drink from this fountain

It dwells where fashion has foreclosed
Radiant as a sapphire
Moments like this shine
Like grace under pressure
They inspire youthful laughter -
In the construct of all liabilities

I am haunted by how few know
That intimacy lies beyond the boundary
Of secrecy
Housed in the hills of vulnerability

When one loves
One is remade anew

_________

It's the echo of laughter in the morning -
Where shadows yield to soft whispers
Which only the heart can hear

The canvas that is your naked back
Is my sunrise
In this fleeting moment I am a song
A rhythm
A kiss
Both spectator and participant

Pleasure has its own burn
Like the heartbeat flicker of a candle
It leaves its mark

The dance of light -
Sleep

The dark

____

The morning is tender
& the world begins anew
Our bodies heavy with the residue of intimacy
Awaken with a delicate touch

We share laughter
We whisper
I bite your back -
Scatter kisses
Around your body
Like the first mist of rain after a long drought
Tracing your limbs -
To the rhythm of our breathing
Closing in on a cadence
Renewed by heartbeats converging
Deeper than any flower can hide

This moment is our interlude
Our sanctuary
Our echo of bliss
Kindling the start of a new day

________