raen1111













you are the only one
i know
who can make February
feel like July.

outside the light gathers
snow and ice into arctic arms.

but . . . .

we sit on the concrete boat ramp,

side by side

sepia summer time,

children running around us.

the fireflies are ghosts,
the cicadas, premonitions.

sparklers spitting fire,
carving suspended shapes into the
night sky.

a year from this moment,
you will marry me,
the ocean will be our witness.

in the wintry past, you pull me to you,

no one knows.

you wrap your wings around me,
you name me,
i am yours.

now, in this place and time,
i hold your diamond inside my
mouth  ~ it is only for me to taste.

you place your gentle, wise
hand over my own.

the sky is filled with light, stars
and galaxies, bones and souls,
the makings of such things
and others.

paper lanterns rise from the shadow
hills, flame-filled promises lifting into the night.

my promise falters, seeking water
to satiate its frightened fire, but at the last
moment it is able,

it rises.

free and soaring

~ boundless ~

a fire lit, seeking its home.

a star remembering its

universe,

inducted into the moon,

remembered by the sun,

and i am happy.
raen1111



driving across this land of glacier hills
and wind scraped sky,

ghost grass snap shot.

looking for the first heart beat I knew,
real and grounded before my heart
beat for the first time.

my own heart ~ concrete walls
girded with steel ~

you know that isn't true,

more like sugar glass held
together with spider web ~

my ears listening for the first
song I ever heard.

so filled with hope and hopelessness.

in measures equal,

in measures unbalanced.

when I was a child
I stepped out into
the summer storm,

held out my hopeful hands,

cupped and holding

what I knew was the

history of the whole world.

then I threw my head back,

drank in the universe and danced.




raen1111
Listen . . .





While You Watch . . .










Then walk . . .



in your bare feet  . . .





we walk, and it is soft ~ soft.
lilting step and slipping promises.

the eagle flies over us,
magic feathered wings.

heavenly things can overcome
Mammon's muscled whispers.

we are the flood, the flame.

our bones are stones,
our blood . . . the next forest.

we weep, we are the
water over the road.

bridge and gap.

wash this away, hold me,
I am red heart remembered.

she has sewn together,
the lips of all the liars.

the world rises like a bee hum,
the murmuration sings on the horizon.

memories smudge across the
broken glass edge ~

my bloody toe, my corn field salvation.

a picture, in black and white, forgotten
in my worded mind, defined by my
posture, my synapse symphony.

my bare feet are strong and certain,
walking on the gravel lane ~
I know where the hive hangs,
I was born into its steady connection.

my wrists, once bound and bruised,
are free ~ I have found my fist,
I leave the filthy ropes behind.

I know a strong man, he waits
for me with big winged embrace.
at the end of the road, i can rest.

but i like the temerarious march,
thru the waxing moonlight morning,

that lies in between.