No Sunshine

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Driving yesterday, Friday
Suddenly, my periphery


I saw you
You saw me — singing, maybe


Our worlds, long since finished colliding


We, continued
I singing, still

“Why are you alone?”
The music sneaked up on me to ask


Caught me off guard


My voice was in another world
Singing of a lover’s soul


So I sang soul music to explain
Loud, because of my soul’s pain

Lofty

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I remember temperatures
Made me rise to you
Every opportunity
I leaned in to melt
Never swept the sun away
I bid it come closer
That I would rain down
Begged it then to burn me
Condense and then confine me
Maybe we were clouded
But I couldn’t care
I wanted to be near you
In your lofty air

Things With Strings

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See that small farm right there
See those young and old kids

Mine and his

Toys and mischief, solemnity and instruments strewn about
All things with strings — what heaven these things

Animals, there’s no choice

Alpacas, needing to wake us at dawn but, agreeable, settle in for the night before our dinnertime

Ebony dogs and snowy white chickens
No cows, but a cowboy

Keeps his white hat far back in our closet on a shelf and never puts my heart on a shelf

Comes home from work on time and Saturdays are his and mine

We get greasy together under the cover of some good old American steel

In the polebarn back there, muscle-bound memories we rebuild

Sundays are God’s, he says — how he leads the way, putting all striving aside for the day

On his knees each night in prayer

No need to prove himself to me ever again since he put me on a pedestal there in his heart of gold

Our house on a hill, our kids and our farm

His eyes and his time and his life

His gifts to me, Amen and Amen

Tomorrow Leave

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I asked you then, come away

From pretending
From costume parties

To remove the mask
To wear your name proud

The name borne of your mother’s heart
The name I called you as a child

Remember who you truly are
Remember what you deeply love

Creatures, cars, cooking, calm
Comfort in my crazy arms

Leave behind the aged bones
Leave to find your first true home

I ask you now, come away

Forever Indigo

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I was warned of the Yellow

The Yellow from the City

I liked its light, so

I defended it
Believed the best of it
Allowed it into my home, my bed
My sinew

I favored it
Fed it
Berries

I started to starve

Courageous, I asked for respect
Yellow, it fled

We stay silent now, Yellow and I

I was warned

But I still believe the best
For I’m forever Indigo

Tall & Lovely

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Ahh, the girl from that January beach
Walking past those who shroud themselves in grey
Unchoosing to see
How each simple step they ought take
Means a chance to dance

But in my mirror I see her, whether January or June
I see me, swaying in syncopated rhythm
Barefoot
Embracing time these past months
Finally never alone

Original Thought Credit: “Garota de Ipanema;” Vinicius de Moraes, lyricist

Unilateral

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If you haven’t lost the love of your life
In the late Summertime

As a jewel-toned magic carpet pulled
From ‘neath your soaring heart

As your jump rope stolen
Whilst you sang from the deep

Then you cannot have been my best friend
In this, our late lifetime

In the Echinacea

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A Cardinal, spying from the pow’r lines by my kitchen window, acts tempestuously

As if he cannot resist me

Truth be told, I’m fond of him, too

Remarkable as he is — less a vivid red than most, and volume missing in the tufts of his shaggy cone

I know the migration he’s been through, and he needs that

Unafraid to ask, I say, “What is it you want?”

His response…be still, my heart!

I won’t betray his confidence, but we see eye-to-eye

It’s the reason he finds himself landing in my backyard peach tree at every possible opportunity

Poking around in the Echinacea, for calm

Glad I give him refuge, I leave open the door

Talking with him like this, leaves me wanting more

Unhidden

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Where, perfection, do you dwell
If not in the touch of one who loves me well

In the curiosity contained within the eyes
Of the soul searching, undisguised
For the compass contained within my center
For permission granted for which to enter