My hands

Young and soft and strong

Run over her wrinkles

Pulling stray strands

Of Wisdom

In unsightly places

Oh grandmother

I hear your whisper

“You are my sunshine”

And I am 5 again

Rocking, content

“my only sunshine”

And I am 7

In your best climbing tree

“you make me happy”

I am

10, playing tiddlywinks

“when skies are grey”

12, burying Papa

“you’ll never know dear”

13, cleaning, Colorado

“how much I love you”

26, “you are my golden ray of sunshine” you say

“so please don’t take my sunshine away”

And I am 32, back in this garden

Working the earth

The way we always did

Pulling weeds

Wisdom

And the breeze

Blowing

Across the ages

I want to lean in

heart open, being

here now

I want to ride its waves

a water molecule

at sea

Crashing and splashing

with emotion, the flow

of life

The sea’s beauty

undoes my heart

in praise

And a single tear

finds her way

home

I am an only child

born that way

alone

1 chic but cramped, thin and sleek

the other rugged and roomy.

I was walking through the world

wearing two different boots.

The discovery put a spring in my step

a celebration

for the wonder of walking

straight through the wild

and arriving back where I started

one leg longer

leading me in circles.

How do you want it?

Medium well?

Still bleeding?

Wild

My heart, Speaking

He broke it

And Blessed it

My heart, Begging

Take, eat

Remember me

This is my body

In raw poetry

Black

And pouring

Draft after draft

4 generations later

And his mama

Channeling.

Change is hard

Cider

4 dollars and fifty cents

His heart

Free

Foam overflowing

We drink it down

Together

Drinking on the job

Singing

His mama’s song

Another draft

Different words

Same freedom song

Time

Was made for meeting

Fingers for speaking

And strumming

Heartstrings

Teach me your song

Soft and slow

Play me

A lullaby on dendrite tips

Humming, singing

Hands meeting

Sealing the synapse

Electricity surging

Seeking, squeezing

Silently speaking

The heart’s voice

Which words cannot.

Alone and cold

On the outside

Warm inside, marveling

At the stitching of heaven

Falling and floating around me

The fluff of heaven’s pillows

So soft you lay your head down

And never lift it up again.

Only heaven could stuff its pillows

With particles infinite yet unique

In soft jagged edges.

Savoring the silence

Of the winter woods,

A distant train

Brings me from my reverie

Speaking of giving and taking away.

Further along my path

I stumble upon a Hot Wheels bicycle

From another world

And can feel the warm summer breezes

And hear the laughter

And see soo much green

The irony is thick

As I push it

Through the cold, brown, bare silence

All the way home.

When the path is so well groomed, it’s hard to get off

To go bush-wacking

To try a new trail

Where the wild ones are, where you long to be.

We held our breath

The dogs, birds, trees, and me

To better hear the silence

And found the stream speaking

About survival in a cold dark night-

That tears dripping prevent the pipes from bursting.

We stayed there

And headed for Home

In awe of the artist

Who painted magnificent silhouettes

On a background of forever

A faun

Adorned, in war paint, white

Bade me

“Come”

Into the woods tonight.

So into the woods I went

Mercy!

He was heaven sent

With a furry flag of white

Dancing in the late day light

Mystic music in the air

I was awe struck

Hyper aware.

Then awoke into a dream

Found a pan flute and a gypsy queen

Brought both to the other side

Once a thought, now alive

Glad to learn

For heaven’s sake

How to finally fall awake.

The sea has a way

of reminding me

of birth

and death

The great mother

with her water womb

lulls me

to sleep

And I dream

of a bottle

birthed on the shores

of another world

I wonder if anyone will find me

going out

the way I came in

water on flame

I cry out

lost,

my message

at sea.