Glacial

see how my skin is this impossible

blue-veiled-green

bluer than the shocking sky,

greener than the yawning evergreens

that my fingers stretch out 

beneath cool peaty earth

to water into growth

mountains towering above, pillars

of creation, gifted

their millions of glittering rainbow gems

to adorn my edges, my foundation

where delicate hooves of deer and elk pause,

dip their slender faces 

to my icy, holy bath - without reserve - 

come. come baptize yourself here

where millennia worships with silence, abundance

the violence of my creation was

cacophonous

only a gentle lapping, the slap of a fish’s tail

or the cry of a bird - high - a black speck

remains

a choir you can only hear

at this altar

Me and The Crickets

Today I typed out a long list of numbers

nothing important, but the numbers aligned

into years

Years of tiny details forgotten or remembered,

who could say what would make the books

In front of me, the crickets snap up from the grass,

their tiny shadows bending and fading

Suddenly I am hands-on-my-knees

heaving, the weight of all those years, all those 

little details

I scream, my throat catching and rasping,

it burns, but it does not help

The dogs only look at me with vague concern,

the crickets continue leaping

Why is your impatient voice the one that rings in my ears?

Why is my long list of years a paper-chain of grief?

I straighten, I keep running, the dogs ahead out of sight

     Snap snap snap

You will leave, what else can I do?

Winter Sky

Descending to the west

the moon is but a single, pale eyelash 

on the rosy cheek of the horizon.

One blinking star, a planet I guess, 

at the ether’s edge.

My whole body is a prayer.

My words are the black trees, the upward pull 

just beneath my eyebrows.

If I pray hard enough 

I’ll lift right up, dissolve 

top down, 

my toes the last thing 

to touch the earth.

Solitaire

*published in Garfield Lake Review, 2021

Can I see you ? 
I ask, silently, 
into Sky 

I see speckled breast, 
a flash of red wing. 
vibrato in the air, my heart 

Where does the light go -
or should I say - 
who takes it? 

The green is in my eyes,
and on the bottoms 
of my bare feet 

And still - 

the Red Dirt calls 
to me: 
paint me across your cheeks
and across your breast and
down your thighs 

Will I take flight then? 

Can I see you? 
Can I see? 

Can I see 

- a sigh - 

me?

Again

*published in Garfield Lake Review, 2021

the silver moon
dips below the edge of the velvet lilac cloud
blush rises
in the sky from the points of the trees
at times I feel painted too
and gilded
by the last rays of the sun
then the night descends
and the shadows grow deep
and I remember all the words you have said
and all the words you have denied
tiny silver moons leave glittering trails along my blushing cheeks

Known

*Honorable Mention in the Carolina Woman Magazine Writing Contest*

In blades of tender grass 
and opulent black 
raspberry bushes edging the woods, I look 
for myself.

Barefoot, I pad along the steaming road, 
incense of sun-ripened pine 
filling my breast, these green giants incline 
toward me with every zephyr, benevolent 
nudging toward an exploration 
I cannot see.

My hands and lips are 
sticky with nectar berry, 
I'm green at the knees, 
jewels of dew drops and 
slugs garnish my legs: glittering 
stockings. Tiny sun-yellow 
cowslips and Queen Anne's lace 
crown my hair, speckle my skin.

I am neither girl 
nor child 
nor lost 
nor found, 
yet 
embraced and subsumed.

 View on Carolina Woman