a cloud
too graceful
to be gray
what do i know
about grace
a cloud
too graceful
to be gray
what do i know
about grace
i dreamed last night.
i couldn’t find my pen.
wait, that’s not quite right.
i didn’t really lose it.
it was just hiding from me.
that’s different.
i couldn’t write anything.
my fingers felt tangled.
and without it,
nothing made sense
at all.
maybe this sounds confusing.
but it isn’t.
in my dream, i woke up
and saw the pen
was in my bed, and it had burst
now i was covered
in thick ink
that flowed over my body
and eventually into my mouth.
when i tried to speak,
i gurgled
and jumbled
and tangled thoughts
spilled out of my mouth.
There is
a tree,
it is passing.
it is
dying.
I won’t call it sickly.
It isn’t.
It stands quietly,
Its branches reach out,
still strong,
stretching out into
the sky.
It lets its leaves fall.
So in love with
this moment.
it will
let this last forever.
This is time.
Cedar shingles
tell the story of seasons,
weathered and gray.
an unasked question.
a hint of passion
left unresolved.
Time heals
in scattered pieces.
Small fragments
of a face
once kissed and
now forgotten.
Time is a name,
one called out
in a dream
and unanswered in
waking life.
This is time.
a boy full of innocence
becoming a man
far too soon,
holding steady,
offering shelter,
holding words.
Time hasn’t moved,
only the distance
from my fingertips
to yours,
from my mouth
to your body.
This is time.
a face
aged by life,
wrinkled and worn,
with eyes
that burn with
fearful intensity.
a gift given by time,
Only by time.
you are gone,
time cannot hold on to what it once held.
you’ve seen this before,
somewhere
we were together here,
just like lovers are,
unseen by anyone.
you drift away,
lost in dreams.
gone
but time still brings you back.
lovers remain in time,
in dreams.
memories still kept close.
you and i,
lovers kept in time.
the gardener is working
in the earth
and a child calls
for his mother
i woke up to blue skies
and noticed how gently everything moved
as the pine trees swayed
out on the horizon.
my tea is black
rich and strong
i try to sip it slowly
the mug is hot
against my lips
i do not remember
if yesterday was the same
or if the day before
was any different
now, i’m not sure
if it even matters
today the sky is blue
tomorrow it might be
dark gray all the way to the horizon
and when the gray
stretches on and on without
any definition
i’ll remind myself it doesn’t matter
and that tomorrow
it might be deep cerulean
endless from the earth
to the heavens
When I was a child, I copied
the way you moved
and I would ask,
What should I call you?
I tried to find
a word I hadn’t
learned yet,
a word beyond
what a child could understand.
It was something unfamiliar,
Now, as an adult, I still
find myself asking,
What should I call you?
There are no gestures now.
I don’t understand
That’s what it means to grow older.
This is a shadow,
and this, too,
is part of life.
I reach out
I reach out again
just reaching
just enough to understand
the feeling that comes with
reaching out
a small ripple
a wave,
a tsunami.
the sound
of a promise
surrendering
to a memory