Free Will

there it was in my baby book
the irrefutable proof and truth
that I was cleaved in two
twinned at birth.

identical me babies
one in mother's arms
one in father's arms
left and right, right and left
and I already knew

the child in the photo
had halves parted by mystery
male female
yin yang
brave and fearful

it wouldn't be so easy
holding hands with myself
the mirror images of love
always longing to be joined.

Sacred Sunday

Sunday crows called me out
while I was cleaning, swiping, wiping.
Noisy birds cracked air and sky,
my playmates from the other side
cackled a morning warning
"This is not the time for so much doing."

My cat knows this.
Listening to rain is our job.

Could I?

Could I?

Look up at the sky

and breathe in blue

where I would lie?

Could I?

fade to pony grey,

give up the hair dye

(and no one ask why?)

Could I?

paint the day away,

hurl a rock at a star,

just to see how far?

Could I?

make do with less,

sit under a cottonwood

and call that success?

Rabbit: Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree

Rabbit: Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree: To know a tree best, lean your bones and skin against the sleek round firmness of burnished charcoal bark. Touch limbs that ...

Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree

To know a tree best,

lean your bones and skin

against the sleek round firmness

of burnished charcoal bark.

Touch limbs that reach sky.

Twined twins grow from center cleft

sprouting green sisters and cousins

leaflet babies birthed by wood. 

See the soft animals who

make their hidden home here,

crawling over nubs, chattering in leaves leaving

small bits of fur and feather. 

Utah Morning

Slant rock faces of sandstone kings

become gilded by morning light. 

Silhouettes against blue sky

clothed in robes of dusty ochre 

tucking shadows in crevice pockets. 

The day whispers-

here's a secret, here's a mystery

held within the tiniest pebble

the drop of rain, the swallow's nest

the footprint, the lizard, the raven.

Here's a place where earth creaked,

heaved, squeezed, folded, molded

layer upon layer of mineral sand

varnished smooth by wind fingers

in sculpture tethering a fragile tree.

Here's a place where river glitters. 

Sun stars crown waves

The ethereal entourage dances downstream

where flickery sparks flash, fade and

mercurial water kisses timeless stone.

The Wild Hairdresser

my eyes walk the circles

of her curved bark bumps.

fibrous tree breasts nippled

where small branch babies

once suckled heartwood.

mother, sister strong survivor

long roots reach deep dirt

ringed torso reaches skyward

immoveable but her crown

lifted, blown, rinsed, dried.

winds brush and caress

green leaves and straw nests.

the wild hairdresser is tireless

flinging a red bow to the sky

where it opens wings and flies.