forging

hammer
me into
           sha p e
  chisel chip &
tie fleck dramatis
      until
     i
  break

colorless

i realize
now that we don't
sing the same songs

you sing in
rainbow
while
i sing colors
without name

three runes: ᛈ ᚲ ᛗ

tending cauldron fires
three burning drops
& i become
a whole world
without crossing a single
wood or stone
threshold

symbolisms
ᛈ pertho
ᚲ kenaz
ᛗ mannaz

capturing fireflies

the chain has
gotten tangled
in half-forgotten
memory & silver moons

whispering while
capturing fireflies
in the rain
you smiled slyly

brittle thorn

brittle thorn
my dark cast eyes
carrion heart
sutured in rustwire

northwoods linger

paper peel birch
deadwood to watch
raft layers wending
midstream, doe eyes
watching dragonfly
shipmates guiding
around cattails, rocks

lost today

i was lost today
everything north
was no longer north
and i became stone
staring into
winter wastes
listening to whales
echoing songs
we'd forgotten
before we were born

ode

under a new moon
learning to whistle
like ol' wendell gee
that chicken wire pinches
but at least i'm center
with the tree
painting a world in color
water like a stream
off to see the rivers
in a canoe washed to sea

ghost wandering

ghost wandering on wind
feather me
a kiss a whisper
burning wheels turning
walking backward to
tomorrow

gravel

has it become so?
does every perceived slight
have the only remedy
in bloodletting & rage?

'zero to sixty in
nothing flat'
we used to say

much too fast for
the likes of me

my bicycle meanders
down gravel roads
while i hum tuneless tunes
a chickadee
dressed in summer
ties it all together