Angel dragon

I walk beside the familiar wetland stream

now choked with fallen leaves

and invasive duckweed

feeling choked myself with fallen hopes

and invasive disappointment

when my attention is drawn

to a fiery dart of an insect

a late blooming flame

the last dragonfly of the season

discontent, he flits from one dry leaf to the next

until unexpectedly, he alights upon my coat

maybe he mistakes the orange wool

for a fallen sycamore leaf

tumbling aimlessly through the woods

or perhaps he can see that I need company

and recognizing a fellow wanderer

he decides to join me

on a backyard pilgrimage

in search of some understanding

about the change in seasons

and the unstoppable march of time

until miraculously we two

are outside of time and season

as he sits just above my thigh

his ink drop eyes staring up at me

his translucent wings dipped

in otherworldly opalescence

and that Chinese dragon red body

shocking, vibrant, mythic

as if dressed for a New Year's festival

and I find myself in a state of wonder

at my companion, this angel dragon

heralding a time of beginning

when suddenly the whole fallen earth

rises in a cyclone of celebration around us

see how the old must fall away

to make room for the glorious new

it won't be long now

Last dance

O dappled day with shifting shapes

and sun-shower falling with the leaves

as I step from warmth to warmth

avoiding the shady spots

here on this stump

the light warms my hair

and shares its last dance with me

before it is boarded up for the winter

Leaf canoe

Leaf canoe paddled by the breeze

on a lazy voyage downstream

had it fallen on the wet earth

the journey would be over

but the cool water beckoned

and so a new adventure begins

in a season when most

have already succumb to decay

the small brown paper-thin star

has made its frailty an asset

the dry curled edges are better suited

for skimming over the waves

than when they were plump and green

and heavy with the stuff of life

now free of the bulky branch

it is content to lie back and float

String Theory

Here's how I knew I loved You:

at the sound of your name

my every atom began to hum

vibrations of a tuning fork struck

deep within the cavern of my chest

and all at once I understood

that I am made up of so much more

than I could have imagined

in the silence before We met