Reflections

I often retrace the paths that I’ve taken
Recalling, restlessly, your words mistaken.
Each time you arrive concealed in a dream,
Subtle and fatal, like air in my bloodstream.

If Auden was known as the more loving one,
Let me be remembered for loving none.
Instead of admiring the space between stars
I’ll let the rivers and rock be my memoirs.

A peek within a salt cellar shall prove
Myself detached from fate- removed!
With each gesture, these panels turn
But my own fortune told is unearned.

Any post-modern age poet worth their salt
Cannot pretend to write a word without fault.
Twenty years of poetry speaks out to confess:
Those who remain have embraced the mess.  

MSBQ

Triptych: Primary Colors

I. Red

Spray paint on a freeway overpass:
Names covering names covering names
The drips bleed down in crimson lines

Hardened rock mesas, bleached by sun
Towering over the desert landscape
Older than our states and problems

A simple twist and a pillar of red
Rises and meets her lips to decorate
She puckers to make them perfect

II. Blue

A perfect gradient into the depths
The beginnings of life and still where
She keeps her secrets in the dark

The summer sky, pearlescent blue
Air thick with cicada calls and the
Humid condensation of potential

Fields of cornflowers in bloom,
A reminder of nature’s ability to
Mesmerize and enchant us all

III. Yellow

The fine sand beaches of Hawai’i
Shushing the tides in and out, as
Yellow and glistening as the sun

Steam rises off a fresh cup of
Fragrant chamomile tea, urging
You to take a sip (but it’s too hot)

A central hue of fire and flame
Disguising the destructive heat
Behind a comforting warm glow

MSBQ

Gravity

Across the light years that
Lie between us, there is one
Inherent truth that unifies
Everything we think that
We know.

Just like the fractured
And invisible waves of
Gravity that show us
Where something is
(Or, likely, where it
Once was long ago),
There are faint traces
Of where you used to
Call home.

And, with the right equipment
And some luck with the
Weather, I might catch a
Fleeting glimpse of your face-
Until you pass by me again,
To return in a century or two.

MSBQ

Warp & Weft

As each of us grow-
Inch by inch, year by year-  
We are told that we each
Are unique and special
And something new.

But hidden amongst
The warp and the weft
Of the fabric we each
Spend our waking hours
Carefully weaving is
An undeniable pattern.

This is where you hide,
Between the threads of
Who I have become;
The dyes run deeper
Than either of us knew.

Eventually, my edges will
Fray and even come apart.
But your influence on me
Can never be removed.
Nor, I think, would I have
It any other way.

MSBQ

Unseen

Each one of us,
Floating through life,
Is really living two lives
Without ever knowing.

The unseen world
Surrounds us silently,
A perfect after-image
Drifting side by side.

Some drag theirs along,
Numb fingers wrapped
Around the tether to
Their alternate self.

And others, sadly,
Are led from above:
Marionettes tied up
In invisible strings.

Each time you think
You see something
In the corner of your
Eye? That’s your clue.

After all, you cannot untangle
What has always been one.

MSBQ