Roaving Hunger

Hungry for travel
You speak to me like a confidential
Preplanned itinerary
I’ll tell you step by step destinations, carefully researched
Wet your wandering appetite
We’ve already left, but not together yet
Meet me in fairer weather
I’m free as a bird, freer than you
I travel light
Your packages are many, your baggage heavy
I’ll pay your exceeding weight limit this time
But post them home at the rendez-vous
The open road is waiting
And we are both still young
Our friends receive postcards of the images we call aspiration

Don’t feel guilty

Don’t feel guilty lying here satisfied
Belly breathing head spinning intensified
This moment you question its worth
Write it off tax free
As a public service, to me
To the Universe

As if she needs it
Surrounded by wine and sweets and berries
Art entertainment, children and oceans

Regret it and it’s lost
You’ve put off marriage long enough
To meet the Other
Not the one your with, but me
The mother of your providence
Choose momentary hazard
for a life of love sanctuary

The stillness of a January night

I miss the stillness of a January night
Fresh fallen snow
All clean in the moonlight
Time has stopped
Windows are frozen in twilight

Recall the drive home f/your house
See the empty road so lonely, neighbor asleep in warmth
See the void road in the small crack in my window
Body still warm from recent activity

We talked like youth wishing
To wake with each other
Make a life
And I waited for you to grow up
I grew up w/o you
Grew out of alpine winter clothes
Into foreign maturity
Learning how to mother in exotic country
Now our daughter speaks in Tang dynasty poetry
Her own father a mystery
And I’ve no words to explain
Half of her story
Like palace straw stacked to the ceiling
waiting to be gold spun

The prelude has outlasted the wine

The prelude has outlasted the wine
Its still taking too much time
I smell something burning in the background
Neighbors’ ancestor worship in how they talk together
Your nonsense of not sensing

I’ve loved your image, your eternal boy in a man’s body
I’ve loved your personal discretions
Of lost first marriage
Your insecurity to remarry current party

I’ve forgiven slips and slights of my imperfections
Of how I am not your mirror image
Nor do I strive to be—perfect
Better than a mirror I am me

We are in some ways sharing like personality
Adventurer yogi, Cold War prodigy
Political hegemony
Me the world
You locally

“tho I look up to you , you’ll bow down to me someday
Or my likeness internally
Embrace me sooner than later
For your entirety

Tuesday Tourist

Can anything be so wonderful as the morning market?
to be here in the moment's transaction
utter satisfaction at the deal
have every meal here
I sit w/someone's grandma and eat like a queen
for pocket change exchange pleasantries
send me home w/a sunshine smile
I could live here among the ruby dragon fruit
handmade dumplings, sesame candies
I could stand around and sift through treasures
watch old friends debate colloquially
see other mothers w/their children
enjoying momentary childlessness

I could be in any SE Asian country
visiting virgin 1st time exploration
But I'm not
This is my neighborhood market on a Tuesday
I should be at work
I holiday here like a midweek tourist

On this night of 7's

Vega star weaver fairy
sitting on a celestial prairie
bank of a milky white river
hairpin scratched by the Empress Creator

Magpie bridge a stairway to heaven
all the sad children's rhymes
collect into steps up the milky way
reunite a lost cowherd and his children
to their mother weaving tears that drop into infant galaxies
until the number seven of the seventh night
once a year perfection
Late summer Altair shines bright

After everything does he regret taking his ox's suggestion?

Reflections on light

You were just a sunshine fantasy
A bright light summer crowned joy boy
Wreathed in morning
Towering over everyone like Gilgamesh
We all waited to be called on of your quests

After months of your season, the clouds are moving in
I knew we could never be
that everything is temporary
you were not for me
still so sad you're leaving

You've been like a familiar tree
Ive passed by daily
no more fragrant shade to refresh me
no sound of dancing breezes in your softness

You cannot promise anything
You are free
You are like light I cannot catch
just reflect

How will I burn bright w/o you?
How can I be the moon w/o you?