Photo by Lesly Derksen on Unsplash
In the Tidal Pool
First at sunrise,
Then at sunset
You ebb away
leaving me suspended.
My kaleidoscopic charms
laid bare at the altar
of jumbled cowries,
flowers of the sea,
wallpapered sunset stars
strawberry clustered anemones
Secret lives linger
in hidey holes
and dark places
Beautiful appendages sway and lift
snagging and stinging their prey.
Thin purple thorny limbs
encircle a velvet orange urchin.
A little yellow Periwinkle,
a Cushion Star,
a Velvet Swimming Crab
with red eyes and bright blue bits on its claw
all watch on soundlessly.
In this dreamy illustration
inked underwater
I see myself
flickering with
a mirror of the sky
Until bubbles pierces the pane.
between water and air.
Weathering
In death, you are the gravestone
in this layer you are named
in this layer you are a mother
in this layer you are a wife
in this layer you are a daughter
in this layer you are born
in this layer you died
in this layer you
“walk through darkness to the light”
Chiseled words unmoving but not unchanging
Striations flaking away to dust
Weathering dissolution
years of inaction in action
In life, you are a rock
confined to a smaller world
never able to walk away
your desires
your dreams
your hopes
come and go
Flaking away to dust
Weathering disillusion
years of inaction in action
A Vespa Ride
We lean into curves,
breathe in the same air,
exist in myriad light.
Gliding gently on asphalt,
clouds of sun and shadow
roll across my face.
My body is a shiver
that shimmers down my bones
I am filled with desire
to let go
to fling arms
to cry out
in wonder
free of fear.
Wheels revolve
over and over
no beginning
middle or end.