The whip-wending way

The wind-whipped branches

Where wrens spread their fans

and dance the breezes

The whip-wending way

The wind-whipped back

See how I dance and dance and dance

Struck! by ribbons of fire I cry out, renewed

Unlocked tiger cages stand empty

and notes passed in class reveal their reverie

I dance

Tempt the stripes from my frame

Join crows in their crowds

And murmur in strange tongues

True, all is babble –

But what do you expect

From the newly born?

Ah, Love

The map which lacks a key shows

New moon colonies with streets pristine

For no one walks together since the pandemic

No one breathes the same air

An uneasiness settles like a hen over kittens

Warmth given

No sustenance to be seen

Except to eat that Creator of safety in the storm

Oh, Earth!

In our distance,

In our loss,

We will love better

Three poems in and I use the same title

Love is a curious thing

Or is it safety craved

As I watch my TV and see the flag fall away into static

Do I worry for the future or the past with its tiny pattering footsteps leading to this moment

What can I do but turn in place to a new hope

the railroad switch which turns the world

Vote.

Sky-driven

Albatross wings spread

To capture

The imagination

Of the bumblebee

Another bad board
Unscrew and replace and rescrew
The heart, the liver, the kidney
Like this bad board
Replaceable
how is it then that you
With all your replaceable parts
Your breakable bits
Are irreplaceable?

Any other heart would beat as yours
Any other voice carry to my ear
But not quite right
Not so
With the fiddling of your fingers in my hair
The soft lullaby of laugh
The one only I hear
In the tired dark

I dreamed last night

My mother told me

I whispered your name amid all the nonsense

That proved her mirth

Who is- she asked

But I interrupted to beg

Don’t speak the name

For I’ve blessedly forgotten

And would have it so remain

Live in terror of who you are really are

Rotate by degrees to change

Forget the wings

The dramatics

Pick up where you are and fly like you were hooked up to hydraulics

Dead for quite some time now

Watching myself flip through the phone

The full out of body-

Awaiting the right moment to take over again

Is it now, I ask myself

Never answers

I soared, laughed, fell, lived and now I rock

And listen discarded as a stone

I’m waiting for the right moment to take over again

I will inject her with pain, shame her for glory days, name her the darkest names

And she will write