Month: August 2020

The trails are as cracked
as chapped skin
and in my yard
the bird bath keeps running dry
while 3,000 miles away
California burns, again
and the dog won’t stop
chewing his tail

I’m consumed with worry
fixated on making it better
paying my taxes
as the jobs tumble away
swirling down drains
disappearing into couch cushions

we are, all of us
bereft

while they play house
on their shiny boats
with their shiny fish
they bought with stolen promises
built on skin, shiny and white
and flowing hair
shiny and clean
but their hands are dirty

I miss how it rolled in
peeling me away from reality
like the skin of a snake
discarded and separate
that’s how I wanted to be
preserved, abandoned
my life, glacial and still
unchanged

until the climate shifted
and monolithic slabs
tumbled into the too-warm sea
making mountainous waves
in that shapeless place
where I thought
everything was just fine
because
why should time move forward?

I held part of myself
motionless for far too long
I’ve been so afraid

I hope I’m reborn
into the body of a hummingbird
to live a short life of flight
to own long journeys
to drink the vibrancy
of things that bloom
consuming the sweetness
of purple salvia
orange bee balm
scarlet hibiscus
drawn to the cherry red plastic
of a million feeders
dangling from windows
and hooks
as I surf and glide
the thick air currents
that carry me from moment
to moment
until the day I fall, like hail
from the empty sky

I drove into the August blush
on roads that hung suspended
from the memory of dreams
that flickered deep within
the foliage of my unconscious mind

I drove on roads
lined with backlit hours
their amber windows
pulsing like beating hearts
and wondered
when is a dream
not a dream?

I drove past porches
where wooden rockers
with brown sisal webbing
held the promise
of your longed-for face

I dreamt we sat
and sipped our tea
with the endless, unfolding green
while the winding road
wrapped itself around us
passing us by
and finally
finally
I was free
from the in between