Sunken and starving, you arrived
Giving more than you are
I brought you to my altar
And lit candles
As you folded
Into
Yourself
Waking to nourish
On the fruits of my land
Gathered for your blessing
For your color restoring
I whispered my devotion
You are the eternal light that sustains me
In the darkest void from which I am born
Supporting my faith in steadiness
Cradled in your glowing palm
A pulse that sooths and smooths
The edges of my skin lose meaning
As I’m nurtured in your care
Your murmur at dawn
Is pastel poetry inked
Against cumulus clouds
Cast on an ancient lake
Awakening me with
Redwoods, clovers, and ferns
Night’s cosmos disappearing
Into the charm and radiance of your eyes
Will you sit with me
On a golden hill
In the liminal space
Between knowing and desire —
My desire
For us
Is the breeze against our cheeks
Fluttering oak leaves in fractals
As it sweeps into the valley —
I see within your eyes
A warm and blooming heart
Or is that mine?
Ancient rocks
Burn a sacred fusion
Anoint our intuition
With noble breath in dance
Offer us a blossom
For our feast of sweet connection
A tendril nest
Of confluence sublime
Outside the temple I built
For us
You wanted my embrace
And I wanted you
So we stood beneath
A cosmic canopy
Facing a place between
Chaos and conversation
We brought our hearts
On pink fluffy clouds
To hold and to breathe
A glowing orb between us
In those moments that lasted
You sighed
With a hum that blossomed
In rainbow resonance
Growing hope in the garden
Of safety
Signaling my body to relax
In the glimmer and shimmer
Of our auras entwined
As if we’d met there
Lifetimes before
Interrupting the melancholy of absence
I dreamed we were sitting
In the backseat of a Mayan taxi
Cobblestone drifting below
Red, orange, and pink patterns
Fluttering strands
Between us and the sun
I couldn’t help myself
Blissed by presence
I stroked your foot with mine
Cuddled my face into your neck
You said, “I am a pool of water”
And I knew exactly what you meant
I
She pulled into their gravel driveway to find
The table they picked out from the vintage shop down the hill
Matching chairs he gave her as a birthday gift
Baskets he brought home to cheer her up one day
The blue bench they put beneath their bedroom window
Her desk, their couches, bookshelves, her artwork, and end tables she painted
Piled into a haphazard pyramid
She stepped out of her car in confusion, leaving the door open
Not knowing his secrets
She made a procession around their belongings
II
He came out of their house carrying bags of her books
She collected since childhood
His face, strange and distorted around his lips and eyes
Contempt and arrogance wrinkled his brow
What are you doing, was all she could muster
This is your fault, was all he replied
As he dumped her books into the mess
She pulled at his arm and begged him to stop
He pushed her away
Tears poured down her cheeks as she plucked books from the jumble
And tried to salvage
Their home their comfort their love
Their connectedness to each other and this place
Relics of their little family, their shared life and time
But he yanked her away
And threw her to the ground
III
She crumpled and watched in hopeless horror
In anguish and sorrow
As he poured gas from the cans they bought for off-grid adventures
His heart aching, his wounds projecting
Just tell me you understand, he spat
But no, after so much work, she had arrived
Wasn’t that miracle — enough?
He lit the cloth torch soaked in gas
And tossed it
Spiraling destruction scorching their world
IV
Watching her life combust before her, she dropped into the void
And was no longer afraid
Mistaking the bonfire for the flames within her heart
She stood, feeling no other place that she belonged
With her back to the fire, she faced him and reached for him
Not knowing his deceits
She squeezed his hand and stared into his eyes
Reflecting chaos and pain
Inhaling deeply, she let go, took several steps backwards and leapt into the inferno
Her body convulsed into shock
As she lay dying, devoured by the pyre
She believed, or imagined, it was his warm arms that enfolded her
His ego smiled, watching her engulfed, finally satisfied to know
The extent of her love
V
When only embers, hardware, and her jewelry remained
He stepped to the wreckage of their life
In that moment
From the ashes of his darkness
A bird of light burst forth like a call from the heavens
Her wings fanned open, gleaming gold
Her long, luminous tail feathers unfurled
She floated like a star above the ruin
In the bright radiance of her beauty and truth
Grains of sand, pieces of his reality he couldn’t contain
Spilled from behind his mask
The sight and sound startled her like a door slamming shut
Pressing against the air, her wide wings
Effortlessly took her over the trees
On an incandescent flight
At the end of fall, I sit burned and jagged, hot and dry
Remnants of my life scattered upon me
Monuments of destruction
And you find me like this when you arrive as clouds that cover
Shielding my skin from the sun’s burning rays
Until you are mist, preparing me
To accept you as rain
Mixing with my ashes, creating fertile compost
Forming puddles under rocks and cleansing my pain
Softening the shells of my long-dormant seeds
You return as snow
Blanketing me with your cool, soothing balm
Held and holding, gently protecting my wounds
Layer by layer, inch by inch
And in perfect timing, you melt away
Caressing me, pouring into my veins
Saturating my sediment and filling my aquifers
The seeds that sprout in our entwined elements
Grow upon me, out of my ashes, in the warmth of your love
In the expanse of gentle
Releasing
All that we were
All that we had
And all we created
Together
I am an arc in the heavens
A dancing, vivid refraction
And reflection
Between
The rain of my heart
And
My beaming soul
glamsient.me 