floating dreams

when the skies are silent
and the winds and clouds are off
exploring other lands,
we sit quietly in the sun
our dreams and memories floating by
like so many leaves in a pond.
we are the water that holds them,
touches them all
and carries them away.

be still beside us
and we will fill your minds
with leaves and thunder.
as the pond's cool water caresses you,
we will give you our dreams,
and the skies will speak again.


12/4/1991

clouds

i could not hear the clouds passing overhead,
but i remember the wind. 
when the sun returned
i saw only a shadow of you,
your retreating thoughts already far away,
vanishing into another night.

there would be no stars tonight,
no moon to light my dreams;
just the silence of the clouds passing overhead
and the memory of a wind
that touched me and was gone.


11/16/1991

inaction reaction

life careens and crashes around us
like cars in an icy fog.
the thunder in my head
is the pounding of my heart
as i watch the others escape.
i'm too scared, too uncertain to move.
i stand frozen, a photograph
in a broken frame
on the dresser where you knocked it over
when you left, angry and frustrated,
reminds me that all things can change.
eventually the fog will clear
and the prisoners, returning to their cells,
sneer at their captors.
they got what they wanted you growl,
scratching an itch,
as life careens and crashes around us like cars
while we drift off to sleep.


11/9/1991

alone together

we stood alone together,
the crowd around us 
surrounds us like trees,
like trees in a windstorm, all frantic motion
without going anywhere.

and we stand in their midst,
alone together,
thinking our private thoughts
with no thought of speaking.
even our screams are lost in the wind.


11/8/1991

leaving

the music changed
but not our dreams.
we dreamt of the other side,
another time,
where the days of our life
were no longer marked differently.
we promised to save our songs 
for that time.


11/3/1991

winter

winter is the white death,
it grips at us,
it pulls us down.
each year we walk closer to the ground.
eventually, 
we see our own footprints in the snow
circling around us like so many wolves
and we know the white death draws near.


11/1/1991

tribute to a winter sidhe

dry, brittle leaves
and winds of ice blowing.
footsteps hurry for shelter in the hawthorn
but instead find you
leaning against a tree
a crooked half smile and glint
of laughter in your eye,
a warm heart and steady hand
holding dry leaves in tribute
to the bitter wind.


10/21/1991

love does not play

a gentle touch, then another,
two vines reaching for the same light,
eventually intertwined and inseparable.

a gentle kiss, then another,
two hearts beating madly,
racing on to who knows where.
may as well march to the same beat;
love does not play solitaire.


10/22/1991

still

still,

the days tumble past

like clouds in a winter sky

and we will leave them all

by and by.

10/16/1991

bark like a dogwood

trees bark
but not like a dog would,
and dogs cannot climb trees.
none the less,
they enjoy a special kinship.
but trees were meant for children
who, sitting in the branches,
watch the world through eyes of wonder
as their dogs, far below, bark in envy.


10/14/1991

time

time fell around us like snow.
at first we thought it was fun,
we could count the days, the hours, the minutes.
but we came to miss the other way.
and time never stopped falling so,
eventually, we were buried in it.
some of us remember the other way.
we can dream of it, but we no longer struggle.
time will not release us.


10/11/1991

the new day song

silence has its own sound,
like the sleep breathing of an infant
or a house before dawn.
just before dawn my mind wandered
from room to room, floorboards creaking,
the moonlit windows casting soft shadows.
softly then i kissed your cheek
and listened to your sleep breathing
as the night silence slowly gave way
to the new day song.


10/10/1991