Blood-Line

Children of men we are

Water brothers by time

I could not tell whether it was just yesterday

When we learned our first knot

Push and pull, see and halt right there

What is a bloodline?

It snakes through many mountains

Reaches the sea, holds in a barrel

Steams a shirt and makes a cup of tea

For every moment we laughed, shared and sailed

I thank you and hold you against the sun

In each drip I know you are there,

In all that was, is and will be, a part of you exists

Life is but a moment we get to live,

I stand tall; I knee to the cold ground and fold a flag.

You taught me how

From across the state line, I am there

Man of honor, heavens wait

Our last hoorah hasn’t rung

The silk in the bloodline is now and always

Below a vessel, underneath my eyes
Life is but a moment that I saw through your mind.

12-27-11

For Eda, when his friend passed.

Tremor (Subway poetry)

In a moment in which I can count to five
I saw your eyes flicker they minced me into a tree trunk
Stepping down from a height now only known
As cloud nine and so it is
Feet on the ground, again
I remember the next day, morning after
The tremor that ran through me
Like a knife through water
I move into the next eve
Knowing it’s full of heart.

11-30-2011

Untitled

Here and now I stroke your hair

Slowly as if to memorize each strand

I run the tips of my fingers down your back
Kiss your lips for the last time
Help you into the canoe that awaits
Push you off into the water and turn away
I can hear you saying "take care"
I cry and say to the one inside

"I will always love you but run on, your life is elsewhere"
I will keep a piece of you that the water will not wash away
I stand at the ocean for what seems to liken to years
Turning around, seeing your boat clinking the horizon
Now it's just a boat
An hour ago it was my life.
Live, let live
Love, endure, and let go.

9/2011