Unseen Treasures

Opening the pages
of some parchment
that time forgot,
that dust embraced,
and sunlight faded,
I find an old bit of knowledge
that sparks a new connection.
Suddenly I stop
and wonder just what hands
have felt
just what eyes
have seen
this bump and that.
How many times has
this letter spoken
and this word
brought joy
to bleak
and bothersome days

Turning past the tan
and brittle pages
of an ancient friend,
I cannot fathom its journey
and never will I find
an eager teacher so full
of thought
and
so ripe with age
and
so ready to speak.

To an extent I only dreamed,
only thought I knew it well.
spells and incantations,
superstitions and momentum
to bring me safely round
through shadowy alleys of life
and other unforgiving places
that winds and tides
will surely take me.

Reluctantly, I close the door
and wave farewell
to bold new fascination,
dreams of foreign objects
and myths
that melt through time.
My eyelids fall
and in a moment
I am in a new frontier
of dragons, beasts,
and stormy seas.

And there I stay til morning light

Beauty Kills

A stark gray fox
Laying dead in the leaves.
Eyes closed, ears down
Bushy tail curled up
Into a bundle
Of something once warm
And brisk as the sun
Cunning as scientists
Bright as the dawn.

Three old hens
Sitting on their eggs
In an old green chicken coop
Right outside the barn
One on the first day
Two on the next
Nothing save a lead ball
Taken on the last

When the beauty of the clever thief
Killed without remorse
Fades into an old oak tree
Fallen in the forest
Soon will rise another
Born in vibrant Spring

Soft As Cashmere

Eyes like silver from the mines
Coal is your hair, sheen and black
Lips, soft as velvet from Genoa
Sweeter still than chocolates
From a southern island nation

Waves crash and creep and hiss
Sunlight shines on silken skin
Smiles beam like divination
Reaching out and holding close
Close to a cashmere lover
Sprawled out on a lonely beach

Evening cradles new found love
Teasing, pulling at the seams
Sewing both into a pattern
Laying bunched along the sand
With none but sea gulls to observe
Gliding softly on the wind

The crescent moon, she smiles down
Diamonds peer through a blanket night
Shimmering silently, caught in place
In a net cast over all the heavens
Burning hot out beyond measure
Cooling lovers on the sand

With morning light comes new tomorrow
Blank and generous and eager still
Wishing for a moment more
To spend entwined upon the ground
But now is seen what was forgotten
Now is known the rest of life

Part our ways O' gilded angel
Never shall we meet again
Under star and grace of night time
In the arms of evening dim
Warm and whispering without worry
Never shall we be again

Some Old Tree

Raging, ripping
Full of life
Dripping wet and cold
In a dark and dusty hole

Rats will sleep there,
Grab your guns
Dogs will hide there,
Sniff them out
Cats will lay there,
Cut their tails

Let them dry in the noon day sun
On the limbs of some old tree

In the shade I sit and love her
With a blanket all about
A picnic set before our legs
Words of love come dripping down
And my heart beats
Thumping!
Faster still,
The bumping of her chin
Against my chest
Her soft hair waving in the air

Crickets sing and her blue dress
Tossed among the roots
Of some old tree,
Sits and stares at a loving mesh
Legs and arms and necks and skin

When what is said is done
When what was done is said
Then we travel home
Then I sleep alone
Then she strikes a tone
With a drunk and dirty man

The tree's gnarled roots
Ask where she's been
There's only me.

I can't find her
I can't see her

She is gone

All I have are strands of hair
Caught on the gray buttons
Of a shirt I never wear