1096

It’s all just days and days

Losing count while they fly

It’s all an ongoing attempt

To hold the very sky

To grasp these possibilities 

Elusive though they are

To find the unique essence 

Held within each star

We can lay down beneath them

Watch how they shine

We can take our very essence

Learn how they intertwine

How they shift and grow

Together and apart

Complement and contradict - 

Overlapping always at the heart

Time may change all else

As only time may prove

The conviction within the profession: 

Stay with me - all else shall move

If it were but a fleeting fancy

A poetic license gone astray 

Would it have yet prospered to the

1,096th day?

It’s all easy while the stars shine

They say it fades when the sky is matte

But I will love you til it all goes dark -

I will love you even after that

Behold

Ah, but look what we have found now -

Every shade of green within the grass

The trees whisper secrets but won’t say how

Time decides to pass

Through all that burns and fades

In swiftly cascading decades 

Or in slowly eroding ticks 

And tocks that make no sound

Buried in the ground

Or in all we try to fix

Shall we guess what we’ll discover 

In the changing colors of the sky -

The stars winking like a distant lover

The breeze laughing but never saying why

Time began to flow

And life began to grow

Through all that’s false and true

And everything between

What we say but never mean 

In what we feel but never do

But look what we have done now -

Colors bursting brighter than before

Tides crash and hiss, break and vow

Life can mean so much more

Than the counting of days

Discovering all the ways

To shade the grass and sky

And view the rolling sea

Everything we ever wanted to be

Is here in the beholder’s eye

Downpour

After the clouds have gathered

Notched themselves into the sky

Drunk on liquid thunder

Weary and ready to hang dry

How the rains shall pour down

Atop the flooded plain

Turning the barren soil

Igniting all that isn’t sane 

Forgotten things come crawling 

Ignored thoughts toss about   

Here amongst the lightning 

Are all the fears and every doubt 

Vicious as the thunder 

Echoing inside your skull

Numbing the ragged edges 

Of every flight and fall

Take nothing from this place

Hearing only these unknowns 

In all the liquid lightning

Notched into your bones

Go now, while you can -

Take your breath and run away

Or drown amidst the downpour 

Swelling in the fray 

After the clouds have scattered

You can find dry land some day

Tides

In all the sands susurrating beneath my feet

In all the hissing shore

Shall we find where thought begins

Shall we be left wanting more

With all of life left to go

And all that’s come before

Out amidst the crashing waves

Out in the undertow

Can we keep our footing

Find a way to not let go

Without emptying of air

Or all we used to know

In another lifetime lost to chance

In the sun’s unyielding glare

Will we build up palaces

Made up of dreams and air

With all the land and all the sea

And perpetual scrupulous care

Out with the tide for a moment

Out of place and memory

May we release our trepidation 

Succumb to the rolling sea

Without pining for anything more

Or less than reality 

Night Air

In the darkness, half asleep 

How my thoughts do stray 

Passed memories and fantasies 

Through all the things that weigh 

Brush them aside with just a breath -

Scatter them beneath my bed

To sink into the carpet

And right out of my head 

I'll fill back up with night air

And the softness on my skin

The twinkling of stars 

And the world's unending spin 

Filling with every breath -

Every exhale filling you

We'll empty out of daylight

Keeping only what is true

In the morning, half awake

How the world does sway

I'll gather all of my thoughts

And fill once more with day