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The book The House of the World has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is now available on Amazon.

Why and Wherefore

A long time ago
I was left in a storm.
Perhaps when the world started
and there were no trillium on the slopes.
When the water came drenching
on my face,
and I had no arms to hold on to.
When your eyes did not open
and I was blinded in light.
Everything roared,
and branches fell about me,
and love was the only thing that mattered.
One hope in the tumult.

How I longed to once more
kiss you,
without fear.
To see the calmness of morning
smile from your face.
But the storm held me,
possessed me,
and I felt the fire of its sword
pass through me,
and I changed.
A Phoenix rose from my head.

It soared above the tempest,
away from the despair of being alive,
of being new.
Of having the flower of creation
open in me,
and never sleeping again.
Never going back to the singularity
of a dream.
It was then I knew
how much the kiss you gave me mattered.
How little I could return.
How few the words would be
that could come from my heart.
I was taken in a storm
and changed forever.
A part of me went away and never returned.

Published inIndex of all Poems