We all become stories
~ Margaret Attwood
In the end
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My secret garden
Urgently wish
To kiss you
Instead, waited years
Climbed high mountains
To coincide with
Long-held promise
Of blooming again
Tell tales
Tell tales of far off lands
Highest heights
Ravenous lowlands
Vying for a taste of skin
Flying, gliding, whip of wind
Nestled in the cove of calm
Gentle word to do no harm
Rubble
I barely remember the wall coming down
Though tender renowned
Perestroika and glasnost
My Minsk pen pal
Whom I nearly visited
If not for that iron curtain
A downed air plane
VHS player was their request
For duty free on the plane
From a 10 year old
Broken wall boundaries
Parenting –
Though missed a trip
To America
With my swim club
Too young, they guffawed
Knotts Berry Farm
Apparently more dangerous than
Newly formed USSR.
Borne
Beauty is beheld
On breezy shores
Stranger smiles
Open doors
Strings course
Over fragile skin
Time is worn
Borne within
Timestamped
Wholly unbroken
The line between the time
You told me all your stories
To now
I write them out
Though not mine to tell
Story keeper, holding closely
Treasuring artwork on cigarette packets
In New Orleans
Erecting tents on byways of Canada
Evading bears
A sense of place is important
Venturing out beyond all civilisation
Loved ones' names in acknowledgements
On all the field papers
I fade and fall rather than reach for such stardom
The earth and all its impact
Wakes me from timestamped memories
With beers in gaudy bars
Canadian moosehead overlooking
That look, watching waiting, startled -
Only to flee into the wilderness again
Wishes on the wind
Blustery spring
Rattles my windows
Within
Batten down the lids
Promises of snow drift
Footprints on photos
Places I never go
Lift my mood somewhat
All I know
Is to write my heart out
Send wishes on the wind
That is all I can do
When the wind
Whips through me
Awash
Dancing in waves
Clifftop winds
Faeries on parade
While I trip down
Sandstone path
To the place where
Minutiae of death
Washes ashore
In shells and stones
A place where love lived
A childhood once before
With love
We leave
And let leave
All the ones
We ever loved
We cannot keep
So let them sail
Out past horizon
On winds of change
And do the same
The Science of Love
You could know all the ingredients in a chocolate cake, but when you actually ate it, it was just joy.
- Vale, Helen Fisher – The Science of Love
Count the stars of heaven 