deserts

from across the arid expanse, I watched you abandon me.
the sea of soft sand rippled like the corduroy you wore.
your caramel kiss lingered, cloyingly sweet...
on my parched lips.
nothing and everything was between us --
   porcelain bones
       baked pale by the scorching sun
   staunch, stolid sentinels
       suited with spines
   serpents, coiled and ready to strike
       venom-doused fangs bared for defense
   dwarfish shrikes
       devouring impaled victims

and a vast emptiness

       swirling with stinging sand,

       bitter --

awakened by my disillusionment.

rift

Through days and years of joyous youth gone past,
I've never felt such strong love for a dame.
And now I know what passion is at last,
Only for you does my heart burst aflame.
A single place in your fray'd mind I crave,
My love I hope you'll graciously accept,
Each hint of your affection I will save,
Pray tell, what so close to thine chest is kept.
Forever I've waited -- or so it seems,
Arrested long by your seduction sweet,
For time in mine eyes oft doth slow its stream.
But in my trance, I stumble o'er my feet--
For all that fall shall fracture and shatter,
And all that burn shall die with one spatter.

the same mistakes

I look up at the moon and stars
in fear that time will pass me by
too quickly as I bow my head
in deep regret of the wasted past
And while I yearn to stare down my heart
to reflect on what I should have done
I tell myself to see the sky

and Move on

not Repeat

iridescence in the peabody museum

opal fire hidden within
charcoal-lined, earthen feathers
of the taxidermied turkey
glint centuries
after the inception of its immortality.

hummingbird jewels
adorn the walls
fire feathers puffed and shifting
red in shadows
green in light
deepest sapphire blues hiding
in the blackest night.

lily pads

life
is like
stepping onto lily pads:
just enough to hold you up from drowning,
but sometimes it's hard to remember to balance,
and hearbeats flutter when the scenery rushes by too
quickly,
or when loved ones are forced into the memory realm before due time.
but you must float on.