Splits of Light

Moonbeams on the dance floor
Stories told in steps
Shuffle, palm out, we are
Stripped of stares
In music’s honest gaze
We wave together in
Splits of light

Tulip Sunset

The evening is lighter 

than before

tulips just melting

pink and orange

into a forget-me-not sky.

The light across my eyes

almost warm I breathe color 

a tear in my heart almost

sewn with orange thread – 

another breath

warmer than my own calls

to me, the promise of

the sky captured in a

close and intimate

eye.

How it would surround me

but I want to

keep my heart and

breath only the lingering of

color, the eternal, tulip sky.

Hold back the black

night though it brings stars 

and the promise of your

breath, blue and gold.

A different kind of color

It’s a different kind of color.

Not the grey of a soggy morning
or the purple of her tears.

It’s more like yellow
baby hair, soft tendrils,
fluffy cotton candy
smelling of sugar
and mother.

Or the first daffodil breaking
a blazing head through
tall green stalks or maybe
the sun when you thought
you’d never get warm.

It’s that kind of yellow
that surprises my heart
when you blaze out a smile.

Open the Box

You have a pocket

tucked with sunlight

bright finger rays 

on a melancholy day.

 

A box of songs

I’ve never heard

winter jasmine notes

pale flower words.

 

The moon you say

I see a knife that

silvers the sky.

You become the 

moon I see by.

 

Let me in to softer light

and melodies that

weep the names of stars.

 

Open the box yourself

you say in your great grace.

 

These songs are yours.

You know where the sun goes.

Phoenix Rising

Here’s a darker poem- the world is waking up, flowers shooting out of the earth, and I thought of life and health beneath what appears broken and still.

Ashes on her skin
their tongues flame.
Pink beneath the soot
she is whole.

A phoenix sleeping
they strike
and she forgives
her heart tender-

red as hate
and fire.

Water and Stone

Water on a rock
mountain I fell
into you splashed
fragmented
spilled into
you until I
disappeared.

You are unchanged.

I streamed
a thousand tears
spilt into salt ocean.

Your name in the sun.

Mine a memory
dolphins sing
and oysters hold
– a pearl in a
deep water dream.