ETHERIC KNEES

Lend me the frayed end of a cloud
lift me to the rose ---
not the aftermath
but one that attracts the dew

and brings you into view.

this is summer; in a rarer air
we’ve never spun a finer faire ---

a sunlight bloom on a thread of blue
joins me to you and you to me.

the feeling that I’m moving
is what I crave, and with you

my roving center turns around a core
a core of calm that stills my fear

so long as you are you and I am I
we can entwine the universe

one more time. In a time of crumbling
bombed out buildings
we hover near our chamber

an ear to the sea --- a momentary slumber
and deeper communion
than we could ever share in domestic tedium.

All around us flares cut the night
streak our vision with children’s screams.

We acknowledge another version
numbed and shocked, we touch each other ---
a miracle, a miracle ---

singers to the end, praise of hate
for killers blinded to their fate

we hover near blue roses
trembling at their etheric knees

dress our hair in blue petals
and squeeze drops like tears

we’re too traumatized to shed.


SF, 74