not

Come home
before the tulips fail,
before the last petals fall
revealing stamen-eyes
peering from paling leaves
and find you are not
here in my garden.

Web

We bind to those we touch,
connect with fine filaments
which stretch out to safe havens,
pull in from precipices,
protect.

And though friends die
the filament does not fray
nor the connection end.
We remain joined.

Therefore build your web
full and strong, unfurled
in countless rays
lest in death
your un-tethered soul sinks.

encounter

She walks a steady pace
of back and forth, breath rolling
across her feline tongue
lolling between yellowed teeth
and watches.

The child toddles
unsteady, gleeful steps
cooing, tongue drooling,
wet fists painting
the plexi-glass between.

Days

I mark the map
with soldiers born a thousand miles away
and wonder when you'll return home safe.
I mark the days.

And then the news arrives
with half-mast flag of border state
I bow my head
and mark the days.

The neighboring town
bedecked in yellow ribbon
pays tribute to her fallen son,
as I mark the days.

I hear the broken heart
whose beat is stalled upon a final note of Taps,
a mother's sob next door.
I mark the days.