the weather today is like a desert
with a breeze so soft it cuts through
nothing at all, circumventing the outline of 
leaves and blurring shadows 


it is like your laugh
allowing me into a moment of clarity 


09/23/2021, for bryan

passing blurred trees
on a phone line hangs a branch
completely disconnected 


above a pink sun 
held up
like a necklace

its leaves reaching downward 
and below 


a hissing in the wind
summer in the winter

it bridges the past and the present

proving to you
that life is sweet because you remember it

like a puzzle piece fitting

like loving something to pieces

and in the feeling of being reminded,
like this and like the edge of everything,

a person becomes transparent
like the foliage of passing trees.

09/2022

it must have been the weather that day

like a leaf caught in cement

the owl feather in the distance

in blades of grass

and as an instant

forever

asleep to the sound of cicadas

rain of floods 

and cool of rain

the sun cannot refrain

from casting light through the leaves

so that we can espy a shape and miss it

we will eventually walk away from everything

like a glimmer caught passing through rain 

the blank spots in our memory look out into 

our understanding 

a moment that makes us unaware of all things

luring like the flight path of birds

we are turned by light

lightning strikes today on a distant shore

and the leaves turn upwards towards the sun

like our soul flees 

at times

easier 

at times

permutations

mean life is meant to be blurred

forgotten

remembered incorrectly

felt specifically 

through You

like song birds that sound familiar 

relentless 

sound, an ability

some abilities are only given to certain

creatures

like the ability to shed feathers

and leave them behind

in the desert we have no trees

in the soul, too 

we have nothing

we really want to,

but we might not for some time

be

found

09/2023

blue robins egg pebbles over sandstone gravel 

mined where short white grass breathes

like a white cast over earth

or a blue light in winter

the difference between the warmth and coolness 

of the sun’s light

curls, gilded softly

like the colors of a 

damp 

thin

leaf 

thank You for the ability to see

things

wrong 

and 

to go missing

in feeling before you know

to find

in unknowing

to live long enough 

to see shadows 

move across land

and to forget light

where you first felt it 

nature working timelessly

circle of the world 

waiting around wondering when I'll see you again,

I close my eyes

and there you are 

06/2024

tireless time, I try

to live in the summer 

when

I look out west past mountains 

and remember You

as clouds emerge 

a net of birds ripples through the sky

like a gift of light

on steadying waters

and water accepts this gift

a testament to that which is only known in the heart

a tutelary spirit that doesn’t let go

even in silence

even in the darkness

we turn with the song being sung

Earth is modest

but showers will leave behind a new image of it

I forget myself in these shadows of rain

a memory of perfection

like blue water and burnt leaves

we are dissolved in light 

09/2024

it is a gift to see birds in flight

revealed 

suddenly

and all at once

this is how we are known to each other

we notice the change in the leaves

manifestations, 

faculties of bodies of peace

the weight of raindrops spin each leaf 

a color one day, another color the next 

I want to be here as You turn the leaves

and drink tea as the light shines 

10/2024

we do not suffer in the truth of faith

for it never touches us

it comes along as different feelings

but it means the same thing

speaking without words

and loving you

my eyes too new for what reappears 

I see beyond my earliest memories of morning light

when I lose myself and find you

we cross paths in a certain space under the open sky,

we listen out for birds,

and,

I learn to take the risks

I know you then as I know you now

like a mountain that can never see its shadow

if I could feel my future but not see it

and

if I could feel peace but not understand it 

and

if my days are long enough

I’ll live to see fireflies with you 

for the first time

you are the secret of who I am

the loving quietude of morning light

a specter and truth

sometimes saying goodbye 

is as quick as rain storming and flooding the streets

rain that leaves a green sky

rain that drenches the bark of trees

sometimes leaving 

is as easy as the pink petals floating down our cobblestone street

04/26/2025, for Bill