primrose

Can you bundle up the sea
everything in it
and send it back home?

Once I found a tuft of buffalo hair
and mailed it to my lover
how could I not?

It had such a curious quality
both fuzzy and coarse.
I stuffed it in a box made for a ring--
imagine her surprise.

When you see all the color
in an instant of sky
you want to keep it.

Mom used to grow evening primrose
it bloomed when the day was through
such a pale yellow flower in the dusk.

lipstick

red lipstick on a white cup
red lipstick
on a white cup
her lipstick
red lipstick
her lips
on a cup
red lips
her red
red
red

toppled

wind carves the sleepless forest
lifts in tumult
then lies down

it wanders among pines
bears no voice
of malice nor praise

the last vase broken

sprigs of lavender scatter across dark ice
too dull to mirror the moonless stars
surrendering in droves

as if what cleaves ice
also tears a sequined gown
from the frigid breast of night

vestiges

Calciferous stains still ring
rocks overgrown with briars.

How many years have emptied
that lost creek?

Vines entwine all evidence
of an old traveled way.

Were there ever any arbutus
growing among the pines?

Smooth stones once paved a path
back to the ruins of an inheritance

stolen by shadows of crows
hording echoes in crevices

beneath moss-covered cairns
where once stood statues

now desecrated by the anarchy
of a failing mind.

bare now many winters

the sun burns everything to dust
the faded colors
petals flaked to powder

with what shall i dye the answer
which word offers peace
how long ago the basket emptied

willows cut from living tree
a blade against the circling bark
sweetness of the verdant turned gray