tributary (little stream feeding big creek)

breath

to think
my hand could reach
to your flesh
beyond flowers

love, you laugh

to think
this smear of clay
smallest of creation
could burn

like a sun
love, you laugh

and to think
that without even
the eyes of the wind
I could find you

love, you laugh

and to think
that without wings
I could hover
and come to rest

with my hand out
to hold
your breath
love, you laugh

monarch on butterfly bush

flight

fear,
come into my world
with your troubled feathers

I will capture you
in my night sky

under spiders
slender and shy
as God's eyelashes

in a net
of moth trails

in the flicker
of leathery wings
and small claws
curled over shadow canyons

in the vast, cavernous
delicacy of flight

fear
you are the dark sun
in my heart

fly

morning glory

beloved moon

beloved moon
you rode behind horses
tonight

that scattered away
like the clouds they were

casting away their reins

and for me, your face of clay
rose

beloved moon,
stone among many
wandering

tonight the veil
dissolves

your eyes are windows

and do you reach into mine
for another taste
of light

the best year for apples

who are you, rain

who are you,
mockingbird

that you bare your throat
to the sky
shaking down lute notes
from your feathers

and who are you,
rain

that you draw the scorched taste
from my mouth
with your million fingers
circling my soul

and who are you, forest sparrows
that you cry out in harmony
with each other's song
from opposite stars

and wood thrush, that you open the night's eyes
with your whisper
of glass

and who are you, night
that you rake away the weight
of a tired world

and you, earth,

who are you
to bleed, in spite of yourself
a soft green haze
as you dream