It’s that bittersweet time of year

summer on the run & winter storms

gathering force.

One wish that you were here

tall girl a swirl in your step

the smile that radiates with light,

this life has been a hectic ride

from Hollywood to 3rd world bar

& back via several stars

I’m hoping for a resurrection

before the death, maybe a softer trend

a moment’s breath that’s out of time,

a moment that is yours & mine.

This night is full of ghosts

they whisper through their veil of tears

how lost they are, how left behind.

They visit me in dreams

seem the age of ‘make- believe’

when all of us were young ‘n free:

those days are past

‘n now I’m here, counting minutes

grateful for my dog’s soft breath

yet she must go before me now

strike a path that I’ve not known

until the hour I join her.

This too will end:

the sleepless nights

my heartache & your pain

palpable fear evaporating:

tinting the air like poison gas.

We too will cease

like the rain after a stormy night

all sadness washed clean.

Who would have guessed

these forty years would pass so fast:

chapter following chapter

each page a gilded jewel

no regrets, & there you are

so tall & silent in your skin

the skin I wove & wear

within my own cells.

So many lost to us but still

you carry vengeance like a right

it leaves us powerless.

We breathe the same air

we see the same light

we cannot pretend we are not alive

closer in dreams than daily life.

I say again this one last time,

‘This too will pass’

like the stars that shine in endless night

we will always be together.