Snow flies
And so shall I fly:
Stable but absent;
Nose towards sky.
White tiger
Plays softly nearby
Pine tree
Getting decorated.
I gift each breath
The bellow of my chest;
Abdomen to rumbling,
Seated like stump.
I seek nothing
And return to nowhere.
My wings of a vision
Leave me numbing home.
I slept on the bear
That woke up my name
And reached for the honeybee hive.
I staggered and shook
And stepped back three steps
And spoke my name backwards
Three times.
Then from my breast
Awoke a lone loon
Who sang as though
Fluttering butterfly,
But my loon dove deep
To find my name’s meaning
Returning two moons later
With pure truth.
And I sat still
On pine cone tree
Listening to the name I was given.
I thought you were here,
Then my summer began.
I took you on every trip.
Turned down by the big creek,
Headed on in deep;
Dirt and the sand
And everything ran.
I thought you were here,
Ready to join in.
I cut out a path
To the big ol’ pine,
We hid in the rain
Out of everyone’s pain.
I thought you were here,
Always at my front door.
I heard you come up,
Saw the look in your eyes,
Never thought I’d lose
Deep sand and my blues
Ended with everything for you.
There are diamonds
That glow amber
And your eyes
That shine brighter
Each star
Burning up
In the night sky
I’m looking at.
Big old pine trees
That tell of ancient
Mariners searching
For a lost fish
Out at sea
Every wave
Shakes each stone
By my feet.
Do you remember
How far the sun goes
Before it falls behind
That yonder hill
Take me over
To the pasture
I know no other
Calling home.
Beside the pine tree I asked your name
(You said you’d jumped before)
I looked and saw deep into your eyes
No lie I heard, none to be turned
– A raven, dark as night
Glistening while watching from a perch;
A sandpiper enjoying the light breeze;
A darkened snake with golden eyes
Making a long line in the sand –
I was not lost here, no need to be found
Not very far but away.
I took the moment to touch lightly
St. John Wort growing wildly ’round
Which danced upon my heart into
A memory I never knew I had,
And there at last, under the bridge
That spoke of childish games,
I found a rock to rest upon
Tranquil from tormenting rain.
When a lonely mountain calls her name,
When a red sun sets,
A lake, my heart, listens intent;
A loon calls out for twilight.
And her name is here again
Amidst pines that run the shore,
Where slowly her lines
Run though my head
Slow memories drawn out into the lake
(A canoe silently passes by
As darkness settling in)
To warn me of my heavy eyes
And heart amidst the peaks
Where I shall watch again, tomorrow,
For a sun to lead the way.
Tall Pine and I kept following the tracks
Until we could hear them laughing
Off in the distance
We had the advantage of being silent
Without horses
So we easily snuck up on the bastards
We counted three
And waited until we saw the other two
We knew we had been following five horses.
When they returned
Pine and I had already made a plan
He was good with the arrow
And I had two tomahawks in my hands
They were against a few large boulders
Beside a creek that had a shallow pool
Eating the meat that we had been smoking
And having a gay old time
He assured me he could have three down
Before I jumped
There was another boulder to the left of the group
That he was able to get beside
And also use as a shield
He had eight arrows.
He watched carefully as I silently
Made my way up behind the group
Clearly oblivious to anybody following them
As Pine began sending his arrows into their chests
I jumped on one who was lazily falling asleep
When I turned around two were looking at me
Fumbling to get their guns
And a third had his trousers down
Caught red handed and frozen
Lucky for me,
When the first one fired his gun
It only clicked
I guess he hadn’t reloaded since raiding our village.
With my first swing his hand was gone
The second swing was into his neck
As I swung around
I planted my tomahawk into the seconds head
And ripped my axe from the firsts neck
Pine had taken down the third
Who had his trousers down
Still just standing there unable to move
The horses spooked
But stayed close being tied up
I went over to the first Pine had hit
And made sure he wasn’t still breathing.
The woman was clearly distressed
But recognized me
She sat there, weeping silently
As Pine came up beside me
He gathered the horses
And asked what we would do with them
I told him to remove the saddles
And we will take them with us
But we will walk for now
He tied them halter to tail.
I brought the woman to the creek
To wash her face
I washed the blood from my hands
And cleaned my axes
I tied the guns onto one of the horses
And we began walking back at a fairly fast pace
Still on alert should we have missed anybody.
I went to the cliff on a twenty third Thursday
A hole in the sky was my overturned beetle
Who did arise from the galley below
Hades riding high with his ninety nine henchmen
Calling on the world to dispense with all destruction
Guilty was the verdict as the stallion roared
Twisting through thin pines with a mighty shine sweat
Chasing down destroyers of a fruitless life
Standing tall and proud without a clue in Hell
So consumers continued down thinking everlasting well
Little did they know Hermes made his call
Down down down did they all quickly fall
Weighed down with all their spoils rusting inside out
Burning all with fright as they clutched real tight
Olympia laughing now: seven houndred heard well
Deafening screetch of every stallion rider’s call
Thunder in the night as they took their last bite
Thunder in the night as seven houndred took flight
All around screams as seven houndred struck down
Systematic reproach to every vacant soul
As dusk settles in and so the storm it slows
Children survey souls floating all around
Sweep away the dust with a conscious thrust
And with the backs of ninety nine civil men
Everyone is handed two slices of bread
And sweet mother Gaia lets her hair down low.
Like my grandfather that came to rest
Rocking slowly in his old pine chair,
You watch the vista with an open air
Shaking loose your frazzled hair.
For in the cold months
You stand tall and proud,
And in the dark days
Your silhouette is my lighthouse home,
And in crisp mornings
Your tips refresh me
Like my eyelids breaking free.
But before I walk up to shake your hand
I wait for you to permit me through,
For your roots stretch long beneath the floor
And touch my home, forever more.
Return my mouth of suffering;
Return to a place where a brook lightly flows,
Where footsteps – delicately laid –
Digress with foggy mountain hillsides
Tangled deep amidst rose bushes,
Willow whips, cedars wide and pine needles fallen.
Return my mind to awake and aware,
Where fluttering wings present
Gusts of wind amidst tiny chatter from illustrious nutcrackers.
Return me to my home –
Nestled among wild things,
For ohana lives there.
Namaskar, Namaskar, Namaskar.