She stands where the river blows her hair wild

no youth and no favor for her
no hands to clean the salt licks on her skin
her palms are dreams wrinkled dry
yet craving an offer.

You come from a distant land, she says,
heavens bless you.

I got no small change, I respond,
my mind drifts to ponder,

a small change, I need that too,
always hungered for
and faltered through
like I missed the vessel narrowly
to be on the river's other side.

Maybe when I come back,
I turn toward her.

She was gone.

I've changed my ways a little; I cannot now
run with you in the evening along the shore, Exceptin a kind of dream; and you, if you dreamt a moment, too see me there.

so leave awhile the paw-marks along the front door
where I used to scratch and go out or in, and you'd soon open' and you'd soon open; leave on the kichen floor
the marks of my drinking -pan

I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do
on the warm stone, nor at the foot of your bed;
no all the night through I lie alone.
but your kind thought has laid me less than six feet
outside your window where the firelight so often plays, and where you sit to read--and I fear grieving for me--
every night your lamplight lies on my play.

you, man, and woman live so long, it's hard
to think of you ever dying
a little dog would get tired of living so long.
I hope that then you are lying

under the ground like me your lives will appear
as good and joyful as mine.
no, dear, thtat's to much hope: you are not cared for
as I  have been.
and never have known the passionate undivided
fidelities that I knew.

your minds are perhaps to active, to many sided...
but to me were true.

you were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.
I loved you well' and was well loved. deep love endures
to the end and far past the end. if this is my end,
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.

I held her gaze for a fleet second
Her look so intense
Sitting alone our minds speak
Beyond love we traveled
It’s not in touch or nearness
Much beyond love calls
Where can I abide for such love
Carries me into horizons...

whirling and twirling
with the sound of life
play your tune so I
can dance your rhythm

crescent moon at night
dream hammock for the lovers
shall never be reached.
6/2/2020.

immortal wedding band
encircling the globe
dividing evening from twilight
and dark of night
from morning light

the ring remains unbroken
since the first kiss of the sun
tracing our home's rolling pace
in dancing color
light's embrace

and as i watch the light fade
and clouds catch heavenly fire
i know i see just half the halo
with each day's end
glow and shadow

and half a world away
a man looks to the east
and he sees the other half
and he realizes in himself
with a soulful laugh

that half a world away
a man like me looks west
and as I see my half above
he knows it's the same halo
that we both know and love

the halo never rests
it's dance never complete
and until time's timely end
around the world
it will always bend

to remind all god's creations
with flowing golden-purple hues
that they are in the loving hand
of the ultimate being
that knows each grain of sand

there has only been one day
since the creation of the world
the sun has never died
and never been reborn

I was silent
But I was not blind.
A sagacious man
Knows how to be kind.