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Wondering along the forest edge
Among the endless shadows
Of leaves shaking
I left the known trail into
A lower place
Stepping through dead brush
And tangled mounds of marigold
Red and copper patches,
Old witnesses stitched into a quilt
I found a stone chimney above a lost
Foundation like a worn grave stone.

The ruins called to me.
Pulled toward the lone marker
I sensed a change in the air
A cold sensation.
Without hesitation
I collected and broke branches
From nearby river birch
And built a fire.

I sat grounded in the heart
Of the Home.
Through the flicker and cracks
Of the flame, through the heated air
Breathing life into the flue
A voice from the house whispered.

The sorrows are gone.
I am what is left
A heart broken and alone.
This rooted foundation
Courting this ground
My home fell down
It’s rubble now
The earth reached up
And pulled it down.
The garden is gone.
I am what is left.

I watched the fire die
Out realizing loneliness is knowing
The spirits don’t have answers
They walk on ahead
In circles.
C Conner May 14
Every night you look like winter
Perfect moonlit landscape glow
To see you sweet relief I shiver
Like a child awaiting first snow.

Cloudless blue elastic river
Catching the morning sun
You give me strength without I quiver
Our life together just begun

Ancient myrrh in essence a sliver
Thought of captured light
Your open eyes deliver.
C Conner May 11
I’m waiting for the day to come
The winds continued through the night
I want the cleansing soft rain and wild sun to
Soften sirens crowing tired travelers into light
From the aged hotels
Weighted down in feminine wonder
They groan, light a cigarette and look off
To the sea.
Overlooking the graffiti covered park benches
Placed like museum exhibits, like mahogany patched feral chickens pecking into the deep
Cement cracks.
The old poets are long gone from this paradise. They became the homeless - surviving and mumbling in the hidden coves
Of the banyan tree
She grows roots and chokes them to sleep.
C Conner Apr 14
This is the place I asked you
Forever
The crisp cedar breeze
And Yards below
The pine canopy holds
Her breath as I reach for your hand
This is our world and nature
Hides her shadows amongst the roots.

This is the place I asked you for a future
The damp cedar air
And yards below
The pine canopy shudders and
Turns color as I grasp for your hand.

This is the place I asked for forgiveness
A harsh cedar wind
Bites but is fair
And miles below
The pine canopy cries and
Sheds her needles
As I search for your hand.
C Conner Apr 7
Time shook
And the shadows hummed
An ancient cicada song
Their heavy red eyes aware
The open iron gate clanging
In the wind - off beat.
After you were gone
There was no wasted breath -
No echoes.
No footsteps searching
Just emptyness
Like a two gallon stone crock
Drained.
C Conner Mar 29
It’s now two years
I still see your presence on Facebook
Mutual friends are reminded of your favorites and groups you followed - I see you daily.
Friends wish you happy birthday
and wonder how you are doing. You are a ghost.
If I knew your password  -id ask friends if they could see me in the room - tell them the next sound they hear is me -
I know you would laugh and maybe you are here
smiling; knowing someone was thinking about you -
ghosting.
C Conner Nov 2023
Yards before us the smoke pillars call.
Feeling triumphant I allow an exhausted smile,
Imagining the call of the drum and fife -
A cease fire echoing
Over the formidable fields.

Moving shadows turned faces pale
Flashes of blue and certain sound,
From the east rose a line in sudden bound.
I stood tall against the wall of fire steel and hell -
Swallows fly overhead.

Before me hidden an amazing sight
Pain like an avalanche frozen
Through till I cried
One great stroke stole my fight
As scalding water seems icy.

Envious hot lead tore through my side
Splintering a rustic fence post behind
Me - filled with life overgrown like
The rivers edge a beautiful divide
Attacked by creepers.

My knees forget old pain
Before me I see your face
And I breath last words - your name.
And my hands are like mountain air chilled by rain.
Your eyes speak love.

The sky is gray.
Reaching out for you the ground catches me
And the cold earth feels comforting.
For you I fall today.
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