the shift of branches

Voices

all the breathless nights

When

I hid tween dark corners

Just another vision

High hat strike to the low ground running

Beating back all the naysayer’s flames

Taking apart all the clockwork hearts

Looking for one that beats the same

As mine starts to dry out

Past me still cries out

Riding out to greet you

Screaming is it still true

Is it still true

Learned to dance alone

Not following your dance steps

Ha! Then the mirror shows

Your ghost leading me along

Flickering photographs

Stories told

He’s removed five from this show

Memories he’d rather watch alone

Or forget altogether.

How long I counted my steps along the bank I can’t recall

But when my breath was measured counting on the in and out

He was beside me -eyes sweeping the beach scene

Here again- creature that you are-

And off he went not once interrupting my counting breath

Only I missed him instantly and when I reached the wall- 10,000 steps- I turned pushed off the brick

And made the long walk back.

I started my car- he breathed in the first lyrics cooed a chorus

Counted the miles home

I turned off the engine

Looked back at his whistling figure kicking stones

He’s always making sure I get home

The older we get the easier it is to cry at endings that fake a death

For we’ve seen it in our own lives on our own hips

From death we believe in life

For we cannot despair without hope

Still as stones, eyes retreat from summer sun

She places a hand upon the brass forehead

The edge of shadow

The chill chalk outlining her features

Day just begun

He sends a thousand cranes to flight

a fear of hand rippling through the flock

A shockwave of graves bursting from earth

In explanation, he was beautiful

A book binding soft unraveling

From wear

And all he spoke was handwritten-

Formulas I could trace but not comprehend

Gems not meant for me.

Even as I threaded the pearls

I knew no event or cause

To wear them round my neck

The surface

that unrepentant line

Between threads of knowledge

And skein

Do I weave hands dancing

Pull seaweed to slack

Or push whatever strays

Cut whatever stays?