Wings of Midnight Velvet

The darkness enfolds me in black velvet wings
She holds me close and she holds me tight
She whispers to me of unspeakable things 
Only understood in the darkest of night
Like a lone hermit thrush, she hauntingly sings 
You are safe here with me until morning’s light
Here in the shadows where everything blends
The darkness and me are the closest of friends

Love Song of Night

I see the shadow-edge
Of her bare shoulders in the dark
And from her slightest touch
Tremors trace a path into my soul

She whispers in my ear 
The secrets of the darkness and the night 
How night is for romance
It heightens senses of both touch and smell

And I smell on her skin
The way she smells whenever she touches me
I vibrate a deep brown chant
Beneath her skin into her chest and heart

Within my own heart I feel
A beautiful ache I do not wish to cure 
And all the stars revolve 
Around us both at this one moment now

She sings a song of night
Of stars and moons and planets whirling past
I sing a song of earth
Of dampened soil and rocks and trees and moss

We do not need to touch
To feel our hearts beat rhythms like a drum
We do not need to look
To see the wonder in each other’s eyes

We both are fully clothed
It is our souls naked to each other
The night has made it so
So we sleep curled together, hand in hand 

Intimate Technology

It feels intimate 
Holding you in one hand
Typing by light touch of fingers on screen
People say technology is cold and merciless 
But you are like my feeding tube
Too intimately connected to my life
To be cold and detached
Each letter my fingers peck out
Is a message sent into the void
Hoping someone on the other side 
Is listening

The Last Thing I Said To My Father (RIP Ronald Baggs, 1941-2014)

last thing said aloud
to my father was a purr
he knew what I meant

I purred again and again
wished the last purr never came

Last Time I Hugged My Father (RIP Ronald Baggs, 1941-2014)

our tears fell like
redwood forest winter rain
when Ron left my house

we knew we’d never again
physically embrace, alive

Companions (RIP Ronald Baggs, 1941-2014)

My father walked towards the Light
With companions by his side:

His first dog, collie mix named Tag.
Siamese cat named Corky.
And a lamb they called Bummer.

They guided him to the Light.
They guided him into Love;
Walked beside him on the last
Journey he would ever take.

Grief

I cried so many tears tonight
That all the words I had relied upon
To explain how I feel
Have washed away in saltwater
And what is left
What is left
Is what I cannot say

Burial

pine trees all about
eagle circles overhead
dad buried in ground

mother threw five daisies in
one for each decade married

Protection

my dad taught me
to fashion a snail shell
to protect from harm

Slug Child

she was a slug-child
no shell protecting her from
cruelty or salt

she was a slug-child
no shell protecting her from
kindness, beauty, love

slugs are tougher than they look
slugs are tougher than you think

[Part of my NaNoWriMo novel, but applies to me as well.]