sometimes I hear you calling from some
lost and distant shore.
i hear you crying softly for the 
way it was before.

(“Hymn for the Missing,” Red)

listen to yourself breathe

five stars, ratings rising,
55 and windows down,
boots on linoleum floors,
coffee drooling down a thermos,
empty mornings drowned
in just trying to wake up
and stay breathing

feel the touch of someone’s warm hand

racing to beat the 8:00 traffic,
tick-tock turn signal,
counting down seconds to clock-in,
blurry faces come-and-go,
“I love you,” lost in Target lines,
whiteboard marker
on your hands

watch the sun outside of time

prickles of evergreen,
the rhyme and ridiculousness
of some traditions,
cinnamon-sugar doodles
and the husk of candle smoke,
I cup a human heart in my hands–
blink and they fade into background noise.

feel the warmth of a bonfire

our dreams and nightmares
touch and tear the corners of reality.
Your smile while stapling papers
makes the ashes blow and fade.
hold me close but let me fly
out the window,
into the icy garden
where the pink flowers
are only just now blooming.