Keep

The constant beat of humanity breathing

Keeps my feet on the dried lava rock

While my eyes try to pull me to the stars

To the emptiness between the galaxies

But how much longer can the oceans

Feed me the salt to keep me

Heavier than the white clouds

Keep me needing the rain

That all the deserts dwellers would rather have

While more of the forests are felled

To feed the starving.

Last Month

When the wind dives

I jump like a startled bullfrog

And the blue sky flees

Past the gray topped mountains

While the rain flows and stops

As the hot then cold stillness

Reminds of the tornado

That came through only last month …

Hurricane wide

It dug many graves.

Moments

In an instance of silence

The sky turns black from blue

And I walk among the gods

The ones that lived before

And will live in the future

Yet, the lava deep below

Swells and surges …

An ocean of reddish orange

Waiting for a wind

To carry the heat

To the waiting glaciers

Absorbing the starlight

While caves fade echoes

From the passing trains

From the human screams.

Tremble

When the wind wisps

I find the lake cold, still

Despite the warm air from the South

Despite the lava not too far down

And as the silence of black

Swallows the reds of sunset

I find my back porch a castle

With moat after moat

To keep the monsters

At howling distance.

Seeking

Naked infinity

Slaps the universe

With the uncertainty

Of the blackness

Of a cliff

Bordering the emptiness

Left behind by starlight

Still seeking a sun.

Winds

The ghosts of eternity

Speak to me like a waterfall

Nearly dry from desert like winds

And I stumble over the tall grass

(Of a field forgotten by a farmer)

Like a doe full from days of feasting

While children stay quiet

As the clouds turn darker gray

And the scent of rain

Puts the weight of lead

On the wind foretelling

The golden lightning.