Draining Memories

Though I fall far from the Pacific’s graceful shores
I swim with my head held high
Through sea-birds and sea-weeds
And crabs at my toes.

A memory I chose to keep
Brings a feather to the ground,
The wind high on snowy mountains
I can see from the shore
With city sprawl developments
Slowly creeping further West.

So I sing to the lapping
Of this cold ocean’s running tide.
My musings of a sandpiper
Leaving its webbed footprints there,
And barnacles in tidal pools
Slowly draining you know where.

Faded (day 2572)

I wandered into a great mission bell
Symptoms I had thought undone
Dried landscape, cactus, tumbling sage brush
Full brim upon my ringing head.
Without a shining pistol to my name
No weapon had come to arm;
With my wiles I winked upon
A sweet lady resting there
Upon a wooden, well worn bench
Nestled shallow within the shade
Of two dried lips steadying the sun
And two tear drops settling in,
For in a moments recollect
In a conversation with a ghost
The history of each footprint
Came rustling quickly back
Like the wind out on a saddle
Rustling each tear, dusty
The moment had passed,
The dog returned to rest,
And ringing faded away.