I launch the time machine by opening
this case of photographs locked against time
present and future. Even places (Newark, Paris)
frozen sepia and white 100 years removed
marveling at light and air from 2017.
Dark Night of the Soul
Forgotten in the lilies of the day
are the night’s terrors of the soul.
No mystic, not a believer, simple soul,
without divine connection, floating lightly and free,
a butterfly toiling and spinning at blooms.
Inspired by The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.
She, cold as stone, was once warm
and with soft, scented skin flushed pink
from a beating heart. And she moved.
She spoke, laughed, walked under sky acres.
Then immortalized inadequately in stone or words.
Crafted but cold, stationary, here and gone.
Saturn in Opposition
The ringed-planet is visible dusk until dawn.
Our home is between, opposite the sun.
Rising in the east at the sunset.
Peaking at midnight, setting west at sunrise.
Distant. Closest and brightest for this year.
Early June Morning
Air scented thickly from many spring flowers.
Heat inversion and fog and warming skin.
A morning so heavy that the peonies
can’t lift themselves to greet the sun.
I sit shaded, writing it all down.
