Good Friday dawned,
dark whispers of loss
began as a low hum
by lunch the buzzing in my ears
reached crescendo.

Priest’s spoke of blood
the radio chimed with requiem.

Whispers of an ancient grief
it coated skin like verdigris
I tried to shift it sideways
lose it on the slant of sun
yet all I heard was

your voice calling out to me.

Good Friday dawned in aftermath
of lamb’s blood, a mythical grief
that stalked the sleet strewn fields
stranger’s talked of love but it was
far too soon to heal this

dull under blow of winter
burning through my bone
leaving me paper thin
& keening.

Tendrils of omnipotent grace
float beyond the known:
honeysuckle from a place you wait
for aeons to pass.

Your words so clear
they cut away all misdemeanor,
face I can’t retrace, lost to touch
you’ve left me struggling in this place
where children’s voices stretch
to bind us.

To hold you one more time
hear your voice unclouded by another’s thoughts,
although we never said that much
these feelings leap across death’s chasm,
a father and a daughter’s need to say
however much time slips between

how strong the bonds of human love are.

It’s the claiming hour

where fear rides a black sedan
through streams of blank faced commuters
scurrying with their reasons going slowly nowhere:
it’s a cavalcade of age ,
behind your lines I see the shadow
of young freedoms;
everything you say makes perfect pitch
pineapples on my doorstep
clear blue seas, brings strength from near exhaustion.

It’s the taming hour

cut crusts crumble
vulnerability a seashell random with the tide
swaying of your mind open to fresh mornings
dragging treasure from a cave I’d lost:
nothing gives a clue, memory lingers in body’s cells:
like the others you repeat my name in cadent raspings
till I can turn and learn to see
crystal imaginings fired to sharp reality
on the wind’s curve.

I want to hold this burst of love
safe in my drawer, locked away with a key
the combination only known to me.

I want to save your sweet words
safe in my heart to unfurl in my sleep
like a blanket of body heat.

I want to bask in the afterglow of bliss
roll up the ecstasy of this as if winter’s chill
can do no harm, as if you’ll always keep me warm

held safe in your dark heart.

My heart knows your heart
deep secrets of your island beat
the sweetness of the bread fruit tree
my heart knows your heart
it beats for me.

My heart hears the pain
loneliness of childhood tears
fear of death that blights the soul
glint of knife in soft sweet skin
my heart knows your heart
it let me in.

My heart feels your warmth
it radiates across this gulf
of culture creed & race
it melts the edges of the snow
the icy cold that’s frozen me
my heart feels your heart

it’s melted me.

Your kisses are sweet
bring fire to my belly
way down deep in
the ocean of my tears
where the blood pounds
with earth’s rhythm.

You hold me like a man should
gone are boy’s ways
those days of wandering:
where I now stand
the land stamps firm
beneath my feet.

Your kisses are sweet
fire in my belly
way down deep like
the ocean you leave
me floating on the
breeze of this

Blue blue sky from grey
this winter’s day when love
came to call my name
way down deep & yes
I answered his sweet fire
with a kiss .

Sky sleeps her wounded needs
tongue replays the taste of you ,
love , like spring rain falters
on the threshold of becoming

constant voices hem me in
cacophony of centuries when
rape and plunder ruled this land ,

your hand so perfect in my own
tied time we share when I hardly dare
to breathe: as moment passes into dust ;
when nothing is as gentle as your touch .

Spring rain ,
alone pillaging these narrow lanes
entombed with needing children ;

love wounds all it touches
scars the frightened animal trapped within .

Sky serenades these frozen feelings
rich veiled from years of darkness
hot wax awakes your beauty
your perfect hand in mine ,

I, an awkward fledging forced to fly
construct this unknown map I hold inside,
redeem blood faults of women’s faded yearnings

turn to greet God’s omnipresent eye

& vanish .

Sea breeze & wildfire
arc of aging moon & I’m
searching for you on the bridges
of my mind

searching for dream sustenance

I worry for you: hand held
on a bed of dried leaves
you peer out of your shell
like a monk in the wilderness

aching to clamber from your cage
engage in a summer’s wistfulness
I’m dismayed by your darkness
just want to watch the stars ignite

in your granite eyes
the way they always should have.