November Sunburn

So, Sunday was one of those days. And I know why…
Because I slowed down, and forgot about the shadows on my shoulders.
Because I shut up, and listened to the rhythm of a day without obligation.
Because I sang (badly) old, uncool folk songs with a little girl who sings from the bottom of her heart, always.
Because [...]

Morning Bells

I awoke to the tolling of bells:
the ancient clanging,
the mystic jangling
of the heaviness of bells
in my heart.
Deep did the brassy throat call
to me
in spectral salutation:
ghostly yet familiar,
like the ashen, expressionless face
of a love departed.
Did I sleep through the changing of tides,
eternally swelling
estuarine telling
of the age-old story of tides
in my heart?
Long did the briny voice sing
to me
in reedy [...]

From the Puerto Rico Trench

At night, I dream of oceans.
For some (I have been told) they are terrible –
Only dark premonitions of the grave,
Wet, wall-less sepulchers –
And they fear them.
Yet I in my sleep
Go home to the ocean.
At knee-depth I am at my back door,
The silver knob
Loose in my hand.
I encounter the floor
As I do my own –
Sand for [...]

Baptism

 
I wasn’t so much born as I just followed the water out.
There was the fitful, gnawing struggle of first-time labor, the uncertainty, the cold, weary dread in my Daddy’s eyes as he watched his 19 year old bride suffer an ancient curse in the name of childbirth.  There was the greenish room and sad, stark [...]