A Couple of Poems Written Years Ago

Ensemble
One jazz-packed day
      We chased over green hills
Down the loud, busy streets:
      Hands tug this way, then that.

Crocus and daffodil trumpet
      The weeks-distant season
While gnarled oaks keep muffled
      Surprise of leaves.

You hold me with hands, mouth,
      And the deep bass-chord of gazing;
By the stone drum table, our hearts
      Beat full in the warm winter breeze.

Sitting here in careless embrace,
      I close my eyes and cherish your face.


Purgatorio
In my dream I’m climbing skyscrapers
      And mountains in the woods.
Hills crest the mountaintops and
      Chasms fall between the skyscrapers.

I plummet on cables toward the sky
      A hundred stories where wind and spirits
Shake the curtains of the hundredth floor,

Then fall into the sky itself —
      O, silence and starlight!

As day breaks I walk alone
      On fallen leaves like stained glass
Shattered on the sidewalk.

You meet me near my home,
      Your eyes, green angels in a dark valley.