COLDFIRE
EXCERPT:
women can die gently
dedicated to my late sister Victorine
she escapes
the moon’s sudden monthly death
the sun’s fiery obsession
she escapes
the poets’ passionate indigo blots
the terror of reality
the intimacy of history
she escapes
the hand of perception
the twisted umbilical cord of rebirth
she escapes
necessity and dies gently
into thought
EXCERPT:
the essential other
there are many sweet flowers
and many stones in this garden;
the taller stones named by its dead
a crown of thorns lay hidden
beneath freshly fallen fruit
during autumn’s wind
the desire for grace is long gone,
the last rose of the season
shatters under a warm touch
Prophets’ words are captive
slaves to otherworldly gods
on a still winter's night
the whisperings of imagination
succumb to frost
EXCERPT:
northward
i stand northward
as a treeline shadow
over a graveyard resting
beneath an autumn quilt
i stand eastward
with Rembrandt memories
where you last rested
in my arms
i gather leaves
we once said we would pick
to complete the album
of your life
