Rocks and Ruins
What endures
may not be
what you thought
or even what you felt
Your life will fade
into earth again,
as even stone houses
eventually crumble
But the rocks,
whose offspring
are dust,
still remember the stars
And what you build
upon, even the dearest
foundation that falters,
leaves an imprint
That echoing place
of heart, of home,
lingers long past
any forgetting
1/03/21
Moving
The house is emptying
itself of us,
our furniture and belongings
The walls stand politely
in their new coats
of paint
The windows wonder
how clearly the next dwellers
will see though them
Outside, the yard hunkers down
under its mulch and leaves
curious who will rake it next
The trees will welcome
whoever comes here,
as trees always do
The birds and squirrels
will chirp and chatter
in greeting
And we will be across the world
in gratitude for everything
this house shared
Fall
Fall into autumn,
let each leaf
gently down
Or lift the tiny
leaves aloft
and fly them forth
However you let
things go,
open your arms
Surrender the dead
with your heart
tender and wide
Winter won’t be
quite as cold
then, with love
Answers
Maybe life
is just a big bunch
of answers
to random questions
like the romance
of the dusky sky
with the gentleness
of the evening
or the sun sinking
into the embrace
of the horizon
with one last burst of light
or every smiling
shadow
that follows us
under the sun
or the shining awe
of your face
whenever you laughed
soul deep
Maybe life
is just one answer
to the question
Love?
Working the River
Nature-made, the river
jumps the banks to curl
the earth in and under
and down,
just as the sea
reclaims its land
from that very first rising
out of its depths
Here, our house stands
bravely facing
that watery uprising,
and so
we work, bringing thick stumps
that once held
towering trees aloft,
to edge the sinking earth
And then come boulders,
rough and heavy, to hold
the banks back, and hug
those former trees,
now stalwart soldiers
standing river guard,
while in between,
the water seeps
Water always finds
an opening,
and we invite it
to flow
beyond our permitted
work, and the house,
man-made, sighs in relief
at its reprieve
At its best, work
does not destroy
but shores up, respects
nature’s pathways,
employs the labor
of man and tree and rock,
and preserves the life
of water, and of land
8/15/20
Lion Stars
Somewhere,
a constellation
of lion stars roar
in pride light
across the night sky,
“We are family!”
Here, constellations
bear the weight
of major and minor
as if stars sing in scales
instead of waves
we’ve forgotten
We’ve forgotten
our stardust souls
once twinkled together
in infinite space
connected completely
by the sound of light
We are separated
by nothing more
than an idea
of gaping emptiness
that we endlessly
long to bridge
And we pluck
from each other
the remainder
of light we have left
like dying stars grasping
for illumination
Look up!
Somewhere, lion stars
roar in pride
against the night
and remind us
we are family
Sky
The sky hears
the musical movement
of every v-shaped stanza
of migration
The sky knows
every bird that floats the currents,
every plane that touches a cloud,
every rocket that blasts past
The sky sings
in a thunderous chorus
and in the soft tones
of raindrops
The sky mourns
every species
that never walks or crawls or flies
on earth again
The sky loves
every first breath
and every last
it has ever shared
Breathe
Don’t hold it in too long,
that breath
that fear
Every worried thought
that sits inside
unexhaled
becomes a weight
heavier
than any virus
Breathe
deep belly
to diaphragm
Round it out
like a baby
laughing
and finding
her feet
for the first time
Don’t hold anything
past one full
in and exhale
and breathe
right through loss
and love again
Baby Blanket
My colorful quilt
of many-toned skin,
is different from yours
and covers me
covers me well,
can you tell?
It keeps me warm
as the earth
when the sun shines down
in olive tones,
a Mediterranean-
Middle-East-kind-of-blanket
I got when I was born
What kind did you get?
Every Flower
Lavender roses last longest,
deep red have a scent of perfume,
the peach hold their colors the longest,
the white ones are largest in bloom
Yellow roses gather the sunlight,
multicolored ones mimic the dawn,
black roses glisten like midnight
with their leaves shining green as a lawn
To Nature, all people are flowers,
her palette of colors in skin,
the gift of this beauty is ours-
to love every flower as kin