From my new collection, Wishbone

Summer solstice 

​

Years pass and the trees thicken

like my memories of you,

that no matter what the timepiece says

of days passing,

by hours or minutes, 

or hair greyed or a wrinkle earned,

just that one near, sometimes, my eye,

or the other day, as I saw,

two sprout near my lips.

But no matter, I say, no matter.

I remember everything.

As trees thicken, so do you

congeal in my heart,

making room, dusting off the shelves,

you sit, legs folded, smiling, 

happy ensconced, for inside my heart,

Time sleeps forever,

And I remember everything. 

I remember everything.

​

*****

​

Stay, dear heart

Stay, dear heart,
find your dark and hide,
make a tomb of light,
burrow deep your sorrow
like summer’s acorn;
so, when season turns
and time’s chill thaws,
perchance, a frail pardon
will pierce through
the mud and filth, wet
with longing and sun
many moons hence.
But tonight: ah, wait
in the crouch and beat
slow, as slow as you
possibly can.

​

*****

​

Tonight

 

The stars are all around me this night,

like your embrace's silvern light,

And though our times be dark and chill,

there is a distant shimmer still

 

Of daybreak and its many arts,

of the sun, the grass, the daisy hearts.

While I lie in the fields and look above,

I think of you, I think, my love,

 

What would you say lying next to me?

Would you laugh, or cry, or simply be?

Would you tell a story, or hum a song?

I think of you, but I am wrong:

 

For the stars that shine cower away tonight,

They won't speak to me, not now, not tonight 

The daisies have closed, they won't open tonight,

You're gone, my love, forever and tonight.