Close Your Eyes, I'm In The Corner Of Your Mind, The Corner You See In Your Peripheral Vision But Hardly

Seagulls swarm the sky The Adirondack chair Sits empty on the deck The boats in their docks Sway in the lapping water The sun sets over shops Dinner lights come on In the seafood restaurant At home along the Atlantic This is a seaside painting A watercolor ocean A moment caught forever In the blue of a brushstroke

Ashes to ashes I'll get your ashes next week And hold you as dust

Sitting on the curb The cement was warm And cracked Like the lines In our palms

Do you ever smell a flower And know that it's my favorite?

I put my hands In my sweatshirt pockets Like you might hold them

Have you ever looked toward the horizon And seen me looking back?

I could have laid down In the middle of the street And melted away Into oblivion With a smile on my lips

Where was I when My mind was clear of thought? In gloom In gloom Yet out of shadow I bloom

No sweeter than A maple candy Were the scent of rising Fresh spring flowers Happily dancing in the showers

Like them I return From a dark and empty slumber Refreshed Refreshed I am waking from my rest

I meander in the forest Forget about the time Linger by fallen branches Stretch out under the pines Rest my head against the trunks And marvel at their vines

Is this a sacred place? Is this proof of the divine? It's where I come to let go What was never really mine Where I can be myself And not have to be defined

The sun sprinkles in a little I can almost see it shine It trickles through the leaves Spreading its golden lines And in the night the moon Keeps me from feeling blind

Maybe this is where our hearts go When they're following the signs When we return to the land Souls unbound and aligned This is where my love lives In all its shapes and kinds

I was a sculpture made of ice When you put your arms around me And though I lived in a world of winter Your touch was warm and I felt it

Even though I tried to resist Because I was so afraid of you Your body was a home I'd left And the frozen ceiling cracked open

Suddenly you were a torrent of sun Searching for my heart so cold beneath And because I was hardened I couldn't move So you kept me safe as I melted

Into you I became flesh and bone Bits of slush falling off my skin Finally I could move my arms again Around your body I was defrosting

But as the cold body comes inside To the fire inside the hot house The burning becomes too much too soon And it hurt you to touch me that way

My sun went back up to the sky To look at me adoringly from afar Still I am here on the ground in a puddle Naked and alone and shivering

A little nature once in a while To break the trend of Love and other inward feelings

Show me a canyon Not that one, not the grand one Show me a regular canyon With water still flowing through

Show me the red of its walls Like a prehistoric mural Of erosion and persistence

Nature moves on, you know This earth shrugs us off We destroy it and it destroys us Nature breaks us all down

For not the first Or second time Someone has found a Loved one inside me A yearning for me To hold their words

For not the third Or last time Let me be that Person you need Let me transform so You can be with them

All lights are fireworks Since we made permanent July. Whether sunshine Or warm showers My rain, my sky, It's a permanent July.

In these darker days Bloom yellow roses I've grown for you In secret gardens. Still I can't explain just why Each new month is still July.

Your earth is warm, It melts my snow, My rocks and stones Make roads for you. Sit with me, watch all pass by, In our private, permanent July.

Shave my head And cover me in a Black robe With a large hood So I can hide In the darkness Of my presence

And look me in My shadow eyes My face all that You can see So you must know Me by the magic Of my essence

I have no body You can feel My fluidity In the night sky And cherish My full moons And my crescents