orchid buds

heartbeat

here, it is here
that water gives way

here, it is here
that it pounds
against stones

here, it whispers
like wind on wood

here, it trembles
like sand under rain

here, it crackles
like angels
agitated

there, it gallops
with the soul
through the night

myosotis (forget-me-nots)

Maurice's stars

my mind is a dark galaxy
tonight

but if I had your eyes
I could see
molecules of light
rise
over three continents

I'm sure of it

and if I had your bones
I would unhinge myself
like a cat
stretching limb from limb
to float in a ring around Jupiter

or perhaps
the shivering earth

Maurice
your fingers have lost their length
to become stars

a bright show of fireflies
in the twilight

no
a steady glow
that calls itself dawn
and waits

mountain in clouds

hole in the sky

it was the rose
who saw
beyond my shoulder

look
there is a hole in the sky

it opened
while the last of my petals
held on
reached out farther, farther into space
and then dropped

the bees, of course
have had their way
with my
velvet lining

this perfect form
that you came here
to gaze into

as if I were
a mirror
of what the sky must be
if you could enter

creature of breath,
you must see
we are forever in motion
under that mouth in the sky

we catch fire
like tassels of corn

burning down
into soft filaments of brown
covering
cream-colored pearls

you
strange creature of breath
said the rose

you always hold your wings
together

while we unwrap ourselves
under a sky
full of seeds