last watch

Who else wakes to watch
when stars fade to vanish?
What wishes then?

Dawn will arrive,
seductive and incandescent
to steal the candle’s comfort
leaving the night sky
tattered with trees.

You will arise unveiled
and put on your threadbare body.

everything we do
in the course of a day
becomes a cave
we roam through at night

unlike trees

unlike trees who learn to lean with the wind
we lean into it heads bent forward hair parted
shoulders hunched and thrust in desire's direction
our skirts coats and trousers billowing behind
like great storm clouds gushing across the sky

white horse 2

I'd dreamed the white horse before just days before my mother died
I'd gone to a farm to look at it and as I was led into the barn's darkness
hundreds of birds flew out the horse was a giant and I was terrified
its hooves were larger then my head but when I saw how it lowered its head
to accept the bridle I was convinced it couldn't hurt me and I agreed
to take it home as I led the horse into the light the farmer came around
the corner of the barn leading a giant white bull its sweeping horns wide
as the horizon "if you take the white horse you have to take the white bull"
he said there was no turning back and I reached out my hand

white horse

dreamed last night I had a miniature white horse so small I kept it in a shoe box
but I got busy and forgot to give it food and water when I opened the box
it lay on its side and I thought it had expired I dripped water on its muzzle
and blew into its nose and it shook its head as if reviving but when I held it
in the palm of my hand its heartbeat echoed up my arm heavy and irregular