The Last Word

I have seen the river run with blood
After dawn woke peaceful. Still cold
but with the damp scent of spring
I have watched sunlight on the water
Life reflected into fire. Heard the vultures sing
of heaven. Dance in circles. The immortal taste of flesh
I have felt the pulse of life grow weary
Known, too late, dawn’s other choices
Night has come. We don’t take anger with us
Only love
What Come of Waiting

What comes of waiting
First passion aged
the taste complex. Love too
became a vintner’s drink
the bitter blissful buzz
The volunteer. The drafted men
who left and leave by choice or need
Dug trenches into graves. Their women
sowed forgotten seed
Water’s languid kiss, the rock’s demise
Flames for heat slow burned to ash
Invited guest, the late trespass stay and stay
The hole is filled. The ground left soft
as breath had been
We found them here. What comes of waiting
Hush

She lives by her dreams and writes
in odd sentences to drown the noise
of her better judgments
her well-meaning friends
Each thought a creation each
creation a making each
making a joining and in
joining the ancestral memory
Night’s desire caught fire
between two solitary souls
since the world was young
Or art would be nothing more
than building facades and paint
dried on stretched canvas and
music would lack the heartbeat
Lullaby of our mothers and no
song would remember the heritage
of our communal words
Blood for ink our secret power
to survive our own selves
safe passage through the stanza
clean sheets on the line
So it goes for those who live
where the watcher speaks her name






