days til then
and thought we’d made it
when fate caught us asleep
pitching tents
and chasing wings (of flame)
never thought to think
I’d trade forever –
just to hold your hand
in the light before the nightbird gave
a story worth the telling
babies came –
and winter wore our names

while there the golden
wheat we gathered
burned the forest down
I wonder –
now I wander back
and there’s nothing here
but home

mason jars
and homemade whiskey
pewter dim and silver barns
rust beneath the want for something
straw the pale of evening sun
Kentucky blue
begun – to close my eyes
succumb to wishes
give them all another chance (to fly)
let me love
in fields of clover –
let me die in fields of flight

give to verse
this dreamer (dreaming)
poem writ of moving on
seas returned – the lowly sailor –
backward here into the dawn

was set adrift
on oars of maple
pinned aloft the noble bride
set a course for warmer waters
but kept a place (for me) aside
written here – a tattooed letter
button birds and woodsong shame
lacey lace
in cardboard boxes
sheets to never fit the same

proof of heaven
a moment glistens –
forever waits the night (I hold)
touch the locket
and claim the promise –
cools the skin
that hides the soul