Maybe a bright sandy beach
Is gonna bring you back..
Still, pretty good year

Tori Amos

Untouched by ravenous hands
Branch ages gently
Filigree lace paperwork 
Embraced by millipedes 
Lantern for sunlight
Beauty bone deep

Must I really choose?
I'd hoped for both
But I got the blues
Stories and sonnets
Don't say enough
Silence and sidelines 
Say all too much
Simple it seems 
To listening ears
I choose me over you
For the rest of my years

New bloom emerges
From the soil of broken leaf
Patient waiting brings

Dancing, the slightest
Touch of breath
Moves right through
Melting upon a thought
Burn on until midnight 
Or chill in the dark
A look, a spark
Two flames set apart
Naked as day fades
Adorning walls cast
Light of two souls
Colliding

Go gently, future self
Know that I am cheering
Like my own born children
For your success
Though surely short-lived
For every day brings
Tribulation along with it
This moment I give birth
To hope through incantations 
Of love I only knew
By the tears of former you

Whenever you go
It is hard to say farewell 
As parting clouds know 

Tell me your origin story
I'll tell you mine
If our stars align will I have
the chance to see you shine?
I close my eyes and imagine
by the splotches in darkness
what the big bang looked like
So too, man-made blasts
Devastation vs creation
Is eternity esoteric? 
While infinity mathematic?
Stardust to stardust
From this point of view
we are made of the same stuff
That is why the few times
I have held you
Gravity grew stronger
As you drew away
The nights grew longer

By the cool light of day
All my dreams slip away
All the words wrote in hope
Don't seem right anymore
All answers lightly borne
melt away with the dew
Yearnings are scorned
since light held by moon
overpowered by sun rays
errands overtake love's daze
As reason wrestles proudly with
Faith held too soon

While ancient scribes
Ascribed beauty to woman
In gems and precious stones
Mined from rock foundations
Cut and polished down
Wisdom since grew
As if a rift in continental shelf rose upward 
In a century
An erudite woman
Granite forza
Seams of gold
Aged beautifully 
Weathered by adventure 
Silver gums whisp
At altitude
Trunks stretched
Twisting through time
Cool tarn serene
Rare species bloom
Miniature native orchids
Unfold in leaf litter
Heavenly bodies
Encircle her beauty 
Revealed by gibbous moon