Dianne at Sixteen

lost on our first night in Paris
she stayed calm, ordered crepes
smeared with coconut and nutella
then later on strolling Montmartre
bought fingerless gloves,
and a blue hat with a tassel
skipped the Eiffel Tower
and a float down the Seine
but couldn't miss Père Lachaise
or the museum of Salvador Dali
passed up the catacombs
to shop at Galeries Lafayette
and look down on the Palais Garnier

gone

liquid existence
slips cooly into oblivion
leaving no trace
of the mossy
platinum velvet
ashy palette
painted
by my body
my presence
my love

wish you were here

thirty-one degrees below zero
ten days on it's seventy-two
hail and winds, straight or tornado
tree-breaking ice
eighteen inches of snow
over a hundred twenty days in a row
welcome to Oklahoma

beginnings

my hiding place
stood silent
I climbed up
sat in the fork of two limbs
reached for blue sky
in our old oak tree

a purple cover
adorned with sisters
vivid sunlight through branches
wind honeysuckle sweet
a sparrow alights up high
she sings to me

Jo high in her garret
me on a leafy perch
an apple each and some ink
a jumble of words
tears on the page
wondering just how things will be