Old Poems
LOVE SONG to SLEEP
The whole world is asleep
In the room next to mine –
His little fists curled around
A sweaty receiving blanket.
Eyes closed so gently to the night
And day alike,
To my steps over the floor,
And the 30-somethings’ party across the back,
To military jets overhead,
And the prostitutes
Under our front steps,
Their johns all unzipped and unaware…
That above their heads
The peace of sleep is ever pervasive,
blessing us all.
REBIRTH
The darkest hour
Is before dawn. I’m a
Glowing piece of you.
There is a love that
Knows your name, walking next
To you, counting sand.
HUBRIS
Space where air should be is
All around you, but no air.
A giant in the night, Orion gasps,
Launching himself
At wisdom.
Athena laughs at him
And his empty pack—
Arrows loosed
All over the galaxy
Falling like brittle leaves
To earth.
She reads the sky like braille
And translates it to Modern Japanese—in haiku.
Orion lumbers through the night,
His pride in knots all around his ankles.
The Pleiades are watching and giggling,
Athena still reciting poetry.
Tumbling over his moccasins, Orion lands
In the River Styx,
Only too glad to go home.
Life on Earth was
Too difficult to figure out. –
THE DARKNESS BRINGS LIGHT
Early morning
but the half moon is high and white in
an early autumn sky.
It tells of a passing
from night into day,
and the spirit that lingers from dreams into waking.
Watching us, a second sun—
lighting a path from the unseen.
The light darkness brings
is meant to be swallowed.
A RED THING
When did woman ever lie down like a lamb?
For him to come along to collect…
Pull up into his arms…
Bring into his heart…
Make his own.
Yours, mine.
Us.
We roared from the beginning.
The trick: we purr before we roar.
