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