The Witness

    "Revealing the promise of rebirth"

    We walk together again.
    Our pace earns the admiration of snails.
    Filtered rays of the yellow star light the path for our footsteps,
    learning more about each other, one step at a time.

    Lost in colorful conversation, we speak of life;
    we talk about us and the birth of our merger;
    we chat about change
    and confess our distaste for a world sadly muted by the relentless pursuit
    of green paper.

    Hand in hand, we ask the questions that have no answers:
    "When will the world change?"
    "When will people change?"
    We then save the world with our inadequate solutions.

    Laughing and walking and talking and loving,
    drifting carelessly with no desired destination,
    two grateful wanderers in the open terrain of life.

    But a gift is patiently waiting for our recognition,
    a sudden flicker in our peripheral vision,
    catching our attention,
    capturing our imagination.

    We pause in wonder, become showered with passion,
    an outburst and eruption,
    an explosion of color in motion!

    A living kaleidoscope in the sky painted blue,
    a dazzling sketch from the Giver of Life,
    red- and orange- and wine-colored patterns,
    a delightful display that takes our breath away.

    Second after second,
    remnants of rooted life fall gracefully around us.
    Blessed we are by the benevolence of their spiral descent,
    twisting ... turning ... toppling ... tossing,
    creating a sacred trail for thankful drifters.

    The sweet smell of dying flora is life-affirming!
    So much beauty in something that is ending.
    An elegant way to die without the mourning.

    We inhale and watch the exhale from the lungs of our earth mother;
    she orchestrates mad flurries of magnificent colors.
    We respond, heaving sighs of appreciation and wonder,
    hopelessly entranced by nature's splendor.

    The realization of our gift is overwhelming.
    Two indebted spectators on this planet
    witnessing a divine transformation,
    beholding an act of something so grand and intelligent,
    revealing the promise of rebirth,
    reminding us of the birth of our promises to each other.

    We pause and look at each other deeply,
    smile crookedly,
    and know instantly
    the insignificance of the things we call important.

    Patiently, we await the next breath of Mom,
    but she sends a squirrel,
    scurrying across our path to catch one lonely acorn,
    then pausing uncharacteristically
    to witness our embrace.

Redemption

"Tender hums and croons of a newborn end this fierce battle"

Face-to-face with the flesh of my blood,
gazing in wonder at the new life in my arms,
in awe I am of this prophetic bundle of joy.

Holding love in a knitted white blanket,
blessing the miracle of birth
while cursing Lincoln's conception of freedom.

Proclamations of my own emancipation
inscribed on the rosy cheeks of an infant angel:
"Break free from your chains!"
"Emancipate yourself!"
"Your freedom is nigh!"
"There is hope for you yet!"

But flames of shame are burning my inside terrain,
my blood veins singed by fires of remorse,
thoughts parched by deep introspection,
my eyes drenched by the waters of revelation.

History's haunting whispers stained my colorful gray matter,
my sight discolored by its false decrees,
my generation trapped in its fictional certainties,
helping ancient fallacies dictate my reality.

But her gentle stares look past history's haunt and my imperfections!
Her intermittent purrs shoot sweet arrows through my stone heart;
soft whimpers soothe the burns of my shame,
and her gurgles and coos are laced with forgiveness.

My incarcerated heart cries for its freedom from my color-feared past
as I watch the violent clashes between new feelings and antiquity,
a time-honored war of divine necessity,
what I've become in combat with what I want to be.

But the tender hums and croons of a newborn end this fierce battle,
the army of my aged thoughts surrendered
to forces of my sprouting heart —
the death of the old me,
the birth of my new identity —
bowing my head in shame while raising my arms in triumphant glory!

Embers of anguish relinquished my mending soul;
ashes of true love resurrected, they beckon to take hold.
In her face, the story of my redemption now unfolds.

Blue blood and red coexisting in one little body,
flowing peacefully through her tiny veins —
mine and the brown blood of her father's,
mixed together, perhaps ordained.

Her full lips and tight curls;
her tender, light-brown skin
an intermixing of coffee and cream,
a beautiful blend I once labeled as sin.

My granddaughter's spirit she inherited;
my oddly shaped ears I reluctantly bequeathed;
her grandmother's Irish eyes she merited;
her father's round nose she received.

My dry, withered thumb softly gripped in the palm of a little hand,
sending five separate messages of unconditional love on command,
piercing the remnants of ignorance that grip this beautiful land
while rooting my new identity in the soil of an enlightened plan.

In love I am with my worst nightmare!
But this terrifying dream, my great-granddaughter, has saved my soul!
A transcendent moment of light in the darkness,
emancipating me from the stagnant and the old.

Redeemed I am by Lincoln's emancipated.

    Wishing Eternity

    "A slow, soft sniff sends split-second sensuous signals"

    Moments before the first sign of light,
    early, before the first thought,
    seconds before the first chirp,
    stillness and quiet.

    Our peaceful transition from the unknown begins once again.
    Thoughts come alive, insisting to be heard.
    Tired eyes beg for more time.
    My skin becomes conscious; it knows you're there.

    White satin sheet draped gently over you,
    a portrait of unspeakable beauty!

    Sleeping spell sluggishly subsiding,
    a slow, soft sniff sends split-second sensuous signals,
    the scent of you a tender reminder
    of the sweetest moments in my life.

    Breathing in ... again and again,
    and one more time,
    wishing for eternity in this moment.


    Kissing Conservatively

    "Boundaries and territories disappear"

    I kissed a political conservative,
    and I liked it!

    Warm, wet, and moist,
    no ideology on her tongue,
    no sign of dogma on her lips,
    only the graceful exchange of passion
    and the sweet taste of her kiss.

    Cold doctrines
    and icy views,
    fiery opinions
    of what is true,
    they melted quickly with her embrace,
    dogmatic beliefs completely erased.

    Softly touching,
    barely breathing,
    no code or creed,
    no judgments or decrees,
    only the rules of the heart
    and the reign of the moment.

    Her kiss
    planting new seeds in my thoughts,
    breeding the trees of understanding,
    feeding the fires of my desires,
    asking differences to hold hands.

    A wondrous landscape,
    the terrain of her traditionalist mouth,
    one of the doorways
    into her body ... and mind;
    one kiss, a pathway to her universe,
    mixing our waters,
    our lineage,
    and our experiences,
    merging our cells and ideas,
    making a connection.

    I replay that kiss over and over again;
    boundaries and territories disappear,
    harmony swallows discord,
    dispute licked by accord,
    and there is only one,
    you and me ...
    I kissed a conservative today,
    and she kissed me liberally!

Empty

"Counting cruel seconds before the irreversible discoloration"

One by one,
watching our dear flowers wither
while the winds of time sadly scatter the petals of our love.

Our tears hold hands with torment;
our thoughts clench desperately to our sweeter moments,
the blossoming of us, in memory only.

Counting cruel seconds before the irreversible discoloration,
pondering love's mortality,
my faith, rapidly losing the battle.

I ... have lost you, my one and only rose.

Like expectant parents, I remember the conception of us,
tilling the soil of our love so tenderly,
sprinkling in the milk of hope and trust,
anxiously mixing our dreams in fertile dust.

Our lush gardens have now lost their way.
Rivers of our hearts have dried up;
parched and barren they have become,
and the infant orchids we planted in our souls will fade away.

Rain is timeless,
sun is endless,
breeze is eternal,
but our rose ... our rare flower is gone.

And I am empty.


Superhero

"Today, I reached the hostile end of my supercharged mission"

A superhero I was, once upon a time,
saving all except myself,
gracelessly flying through the air of life,
flexing all muscles except those of the heart.

Daring and bold,
courageous in battle,
superb at protecting my pretending
and defending my capacity to feel nothing.

Superior shield I carried,
a powerful weapon to protect myself from caring.
Heroic feats of hiding
to uphold the laws of illusion.

But in the line of duty,
I was struck mercilessly!
An unmarked bullet of improbability
pierced my artificial reality,
and my bloodless, wounded heart
gladly resuscitated from obscurity.

Today, I reached the hostile end of my supercharged mission,
surrendered my X-ray delusions to the authorities of sweet affection,
and must answer the charges of a false profession.

In the court of love, I pleaded guilty to crimes of indifference,
released myself on my own recognizance,
promising to show up in my own life.

The cape and mask discarded;
the camouflage, the not-so-clever disguises, cast off;
these masquerading expressions have lost their will to live,
but my weary heart found a reason for living.

My true face is now revealed.
Love has freed what was poorly concealed;
the superhero façade irrevocably shattered,
a life with you is all that matters.


Return to the Heartland

"Circumnavigate her fields, and discover all her spices"

Awaken, new world explorers!
Proceed quickly,
the angels implore.
Return at once
to your own red seas.
Discover swiftly
your aortic shores.

Retreat with speed,
your weary soul begs.
Sever your ties
at a fiery pace.
Leave now
the land of left-mind logic;
accelerate the stride,
your courageous escape.

Earth-born creations,
they loudly plead;
flee, they insist,
this captive terrain.
Right-side mind caged,
held hostage skillfully —
reign of tyranny,
this left-side domain.

Lofty and left-leaning emissary of mind,
blind intellect unleashed
on this sweet earth,
machines and routines and systems and extremes,
technology in full bloom,
humans unconsciously immersed.

More laws, more rules, more money, more excess,
stock markets, skyscrapers, space stations, massive trucks,
productivity, efficiency, cost-effective lethal weapons,
big armies, big lawyers, big banks, and big bucks.

Precision, calculation, classification, complication,
giving birth to injections of venomous stress,
genius for mindless combat and gratuitous destruction,
rationalizing everything, feeding our duress.

The architect of clever and convoluted commandments,
swindling the penniless and prosperous alike;
sophisticated, cunning, and deceitful strategies
violently inflate the cost of earth life.

Left-minded expertise
to speculate Earth's black grease,
mastermind of mass hysteria and production,
commander of the currency, a commercial leech,
captain of camouflaged words and intentions.

Left-minded tongues worship
the abundance of the one true God,
then gladly manufacturer
the limit and lack mirage,
sustaining sick schemes for stockpiling and stealing,
imposing asymmetrical rules for nursing and healing.

A million-page recipe
to butcher human limbs.
Shock and twisted awe,
a song the left mind sings.
Rationally sick melodies
muffle the still voice within.
A cunning but toxic reign
of a tone-deaf king.

Unlimited and unspeakable horrors sit comfortably in left's mind,
watching death take life from the helpless and the kind.
Eating, drinking, and dancing in intellect's slaughterhouse,
left mind plans flesh-ripping massacres of nature and the devout.

Left-mind explorers,
once young and upstart,
briefly departed
the mansions of the heart,
seduced in the villa of intellect's persuasion,
abandoned their true home, the source of their creation;
traded tears of effortless joy for the sweat of the narrow brow;
exchanged the consciousness of plenty for the dense thoughts of scarcity;
bartered the heart of cooperation for the mind of domination;
exported the love of oneness; and imported the lust for separation.

Journey to the left-side mind,
a short-lived expedition
to sample one of many worlds
within God's endless kingdoms,
but the time has now come
to end this rational mission
and return the weary explorers
to the heart-filled canyon.

Take the Nina, the Pinta, and a new Santa Maria;
leave quickly; pack nothing from intellect's hemisphere;
sail south, without map or compass or reason;
cruise passionately through her arteries to reach heart's frontier.
Her borderless aortic shores
await your entry;
her warm, red waters
very potent and calm,
she beckons the disenchanted cerebral adventurers
to enter her harbor of intuitive charms.

Cross the threshold,
throw the anchor,
surrender your vessel and flag of anger.
Rage of intellect's seas will meet its peaceful demise.
No more fury;
no fear of ferocity.
Surrender your artillery in her generosity.
The wrath of the left mind has no place to reside.

Step gracefully on heart's grass; her meadows patiently await.
Scents of her fresh pastures soften the texture of your face;
her air flawlessly glides over body and mind and soul,
whispering to forces deep within you
to ascend and let heart control!

Shed tattered clothes of your left-mind identity;
your spotless name she will gladly bestow.
Carved deeply, it lives in her majestic sunsets,
a breathtaking beauty as heart blissfully unfolds.

Icy-cold winters of a distant, rational land,
frozen mind-set, now thawed and feeling warm —
be naked, walk barefoot, and frolic in her red sand.
Her birds delightfully chant their favorite love songs.

Heart's lush mountains proliferate
without any limit,
reminding you to mimic
their assertive resolve.
Elevate, they whisper,
the altitude of kindness
and unsolvable problems;
they willingly dissolve.

Heart's tears are the living rivers.
Bathe unblemished ideas in her floods;
drink the fluids of their cleansing power;
wash the dirty thirst for left logic from your blood.