antique roses
used books
vintage postcards
weathered wood
rusty skeleton keys
brass lockets
glass marbles
tea stained letters
beeswax candles
cracked tea cups
silent movies
old sparkling beads
hand made lace
sea glass
vinyl records
pocket watches
worn cowboy boots
typewriters
working window shutters
woven baskets
cursive writing
i found beauty in your serpentine line,
in your sharpened glint and your sterling shine,
in your elegant edges entwined
by your punishing, silvery spine
the raindrops cling to your velvet petals
and i am reminded of ballroom gowns
with satin sashes and ruffled skirts–
those dresses of dreams
and fantasy and childhood fairy stories
that still haunt the halls of memory
with forgotten echoes of romance
and misty mirages of everlasting love
robins sitting on bright blue eggs
an elderly couple holding hands
Bobbie Gentry on the radio in the middle of the day
a stranger with a kind word
coffee with an old friend
the sunday afternoon nap
black tea with extra sugar
i searched for you in my dreams the
other night, and heard fragments of lost
memories tap-tapping on ruffled edges–
later, i realized it was just the rain
up or down can be arbitrary
“it’s going to be cold tonight, down to 36”
“hey, what are you up to? i just got home”
“if i were skinnier, i could pull that off”
“i’m a very proud cat daddy”
“hi, i’d like to have both my nipples pierced”
“she must like yellow, she has yellow flowers everywhere”
“pain just reminds us that we’re alive”
sometimes the lushness of life surprises
the heavy silence of a mid-May morning,
fills in the blank spaces and resting places,
of a fleeting memory
these smells
make me
close my eyes–
and sigh
spanishwoods 