smoke rose shamelessly
from your fingertips your lips
as the fog swirled
in and over my reason

Beauty

Twisted in an infinite knot
the silk
scarf against your neck
so dark, elegant
and cold

Allure

Red dresses or silk hose,
regardless of how pencil straight the seams
will never fit as well or last as long
as one true heart.

Your lithe arguments
wind from somewhere near to
but not of your heart, and twist
like spindles whirling silk
into thread

His smooth, honeyed words
sent from the other side of the world,
belied the breaking
crash of his heart

From nothing
more than a smile and wink,
the briefest of hesitation
in your voice,
sprang everything given
of life.

Finding your old
orange-handled toothbrush
in the cabinet, forgotten,
reflected
the way you also left
me

Once glimmery
brushed and burnished
coppery, now
a thin refuge
of time waning

Power lines down,
children curl drowsily together,
listening
to their grandmother’s voice
in the wavering
light