Often conversation carries
Us through the day
For talking about things is
Basic to an alliance

Yet at other times, we survive
A comfortable presence
Where the air is thick with love –
Nothing need be said.

You stole me from a castle
My defiant vassal.
We went butterflyback riding
Into wind that sounded like sighing.
They put us down on a hill when
We felt like walking the glen.
We sat by a river of gold
And talked as the river flowed.
I wished for rain and it came
And in its midst, we played.
Where a rainbow met the ground
The beam, we danced around.
Before it could diminish
I gave you a chocolate kiss
And ours is a fairytale romance
That, to this day, still enchants.

Were I a rose –
   I would model graciously –
Oblige those of wise choice
   And prickle my enemy;

If just a blade of grass –
   I would blend in – nonchalant –
And peoplewatch as they pass
   With no desire to flaunt.

Low dust clouds bristled
  In the sky but I did not see;
A lone grackle whistled
  A warning I did not perceive.

The world would neither stop turning
  Nor quit its mockery.
I sat upon a rock, faltering –
  Because of things that wouldn’t be.

Only distraction can persuade –
  Only sleep can steal
Such sadness that pervades
  And hot tears that swell

But hotter yet came a wind
  That brushed my fingers
As would one consoling
  And dried my tears.

Tell me something more –
   Something about yourself
I’ve never heard before –
   A surprise will help.

Let's pass the afternoon –
   So hot like it is –
For August is afoot
   And I get restless.

If whatever I learn
   Stirs my heart up –
Dances in my brain
   Or makes me blush –

I can mull it over
   And spite terrible August.
Then I’ll consider
   My day accomplished.

I give you a gift of fireflies;
They’re all I have to give –
Captured by many tries –
Given with all my love.

They’re all I have to give
To you. They are white magick –
Given with all my love.
Let them illuminate your path.

To you, they are white magick
In the myst of the forest.
Let them illuminate your path
Because fear is darkness

With a spurn of yellow and a shout –
  A lone Mexican poppy
Aside the mountain path
  Caught my meandering eye.

How diminutive was its stem
  And so few were its petals –
Nevertheless – smart with poison –
  As it stood there – tranquil.

For one who’s loud in color –
  I warned the little poppy –
It’s not good to be popular
  For you can be plucked easily.

City lights, city lights –
Look at all the city lights!
Some are red, some are blue –
Some light up a roof –
Such are our summer nights.

A therapeutic wind blows
As I dare to look below
At the freeway steadily
Moving as an artery
By the bright headlight glow.

From such a great height
In the lateness of the night –
A thrill to my young heart
I feel before we must part.
What wondrous city lights!

Sweat is the other garment
  You wear in the desert
When the only water is in the cactus
  And all but the flies are inert

But a cool layer of sweat
  Is a hiker’s proof of reward
For taking a thin trail
  And in curiosity, moving forward.

Just north of Minneapolis
on Shingle Creek
my Dad and I
would pull on our worn brown leather skates
the endless task of lacing them up
and then skate down the narrow
frozen stream where fresh wounds
bubbled up between the jutting rocks.


I want to go back to those days
I took for granted.
I want to follow my Dad up
that treacherous stream, barely missing
rocks, branches, open water.
I want to remember what it was like
to be in the sixth grade
to have that dark, cold
winding river ahead of me
and not be afraid.