Elements

Each time you fall in love
Your heart aligns with some
Combined force of elements
To express its true nature.

Some couples are like earth,
Stable, and reliable as granite.
Their roots go deep into the
Mantle of the earth and beyond.

Some burst forth with fire,
As explosive as a backdraft
And over just as quickly.
They shine brilliant as the sun.

Others still flow like waters
As tumultuous as the ocean,
With bouts of quiet calm in
Between furious storm winds.

Our love, dear, is like the air:
Hardest to find and to break.
Loving you is as simple as taking
A deep breath on a clear morning.

When others ask us how we do it,
We shrug and breathe our love in.

MSBQ

Wildfire’s Lament

Waking up in a dream,
Each passing moment is
Adrift in a thickened haze
Of smoke from fires we’ll
Never be able to smother.

For weeks, I’d wander out
Into the swirling ether and
Strain my eyes to see past
The veil placed upon us all,
But it’s far too unwieldy.

I know nature has its way;
The fires may engulf us, but
In the end it kindles a birth
Of all things green, even in
The throes of summertime.

When the October mist
Finally arrives, we shall
Welcome its coming
As never before- like
Parched plains in June.

MSBQ 

Where There’s Smoke…

What we are told
About what happens
After our wicks are
Finally snuffed out is,
I sincerely believe,
All wrong, misguided.

It is a deeply flawed
Machine that chews up
Men’s lives in service of
Hollow ideals and pure,
Untainted fear.

What have we to fear?
The whips and barbs of
Eternal punishment seem
All too dull, the hellfire
Promised for (let’s be fair)
Almost every one of us
Turned out to be a pale
Flickering furnace, barely
Capable of heating the
Frigid faces inside.

The ugly truth of it all
Is that we control both:
We hold the targets,
And we hold the guns.
The worst imaginings of
Our final Revelations
(Such a fitting name!)
Are just that: imaginings.
The emptiness inside of
Our minds and hearts
Will, one day, consume
The rest of us as well.

MSBQ

Kindling

Alder smoke passed between
We two, casting sickly haze.
Though you had only seen
Me, I could only be amazed.

A cloud of grey and down
Circling slowly, meandering
Like the King’s final mound-
My love, alas, a fickle thing.

With eyes like burning embers
You wore a hemlock wreath;
But in this dream, remember:
If I be sword, you are sheath.

MSBQ

Saint Valentine

Build me a fireplace
In the cavernous hole
Where you used to be
So I can curl up with a good book
And feel the waning heat from
The embers of our solstice love
Now I simply try to remember
Not to say the wrong thing
At the right time
Pour me a stiff drink
So I can sober up and take in
The last few days, a curtain
Drops and signifies my birth
A clarion call resonates past
Even God herself wouldn’t
Know what to do with that
Light me up like a Cuban cigar
And let me smolder for an hour
Grey feathers of ash twitch
In the doorway

MSBQ