The Dog-Rose And The Parma Violet

Outside my window

the second-story tree and the sounds of the city

( blackbirds & dumptrucks )

A child like a butterfly fluttering in the breeze

dances in the grass,

Her soul like a fire willfully contained

and then set free,

I remember that energy as if it were my own;

She laughs

and her laughter becomes a part of me,

She smiles

and suddenly I feel myself smiling,

She tosses her hair back and leans towards a flower...

   Whom do you love or lust for this hour?

   I know you have wilderness inside that silence

   Come out and show me,

   In all of your brilliance!

   Trust in your fears

   and you will surprise them,

   I know you have it in you

   Your disguises are beautiful.

Outside my window a storm approaching,

Its' chill-gray shadow devouring the land;

A child from a flower raises her head,

Looks up while wiping loose hair from her face.

I saw her shine - it was fading away,

The same way a love-song will slip out of memory

when love is abused;

I remember'd it once

and ran like a child afraid of the pain.

She laughs like a thief before the theft,

A child as only a child can be in the rain

... How it feels to be naked!

She twitches the first few times her skin is struck,

She laughs at the way it tickles,

She feels more freedom in this than when the sunshine

hugs her skin with warmth.

    A raindrop's a funny thing   she says,

    It'll find the places noone has found.

Outside my window an image of you

drops like a rainbow from cloud to ground.

I sit back and wonder what your smile would look like

if my pen were a paintbrush

and this paper were canvas,

Such beauty is often the simplest thing

like a smile makes a woman

or a word makes a poem.

... I love you ...

Not the way a man would hold you

and touch you and kiss you

and tell you that he loves you,

Such a man would whisper his love to the deaf

or promise his heart to a concubine;

Rather I love you as I love the child

who leans towards a flower and laughs in the rain...

Love can be felt so many different ways;

I think of you

again

I love you!