Life is fragile 
feelings maybe not 
let’s slow down 
having raced downhill 
and crawled up 
on toboggan or 
sled or canoe 
life is meant 
to be more 
than just one 
more hill to 
climb one more 
thing to have 
one more love 
to find and 
then eventually lose 
this thing that 
we all live 
and love living 
is delightfully delicate 

I’m excited maybe 
nervous maybe other 
things too maybe 
I’m just that
a whole lotta 
maybe odd right 
before I was
certain and confident 
but now you’ve 
become that one 
little bird who 
lands and picks 
up my twigs 
to build your 
nest somewhere else 
forgetting that I 
was the tree
upon which you 
hatched and even 
learned to fly 

Everyone is willing 
to take credit 
but never blame 
most people approach 
life black white 
right wrong good 
bad what if
life is gray
life is cloudy 
or even colorful 
yes there are 
life’s little bookends 
dawn and dusk 
wake and sleep 
birth and death 
but the rest 
is a whole 
bunch of in
between that never 
really matters much 
or for long 
or for ever
so just relax 
there’s nowhere to 
get to because 
there’s nowhere that 
you’ve ever been 
there’s just now

And just as
one candle goes 
out then another 
and then another 
so slows your 
heart until finally 
it too catches 
sleep’s own rhyme 
and the oars
of dreams dip
and push you 
farther and farther 
away from here
until at last 
you are gone 
then from me 
and there are

It’s now 
in silence 
it’s simple 
but before 
in furies
raging rhetoric 
when words
flew by
as quickly 
as cards
from the 
hands of 
an amateur 
magician stinging 
smoldering burning 
when chips 
were pushed 
and bet
all or
nothing we
paused and 
then flew 
into onto 
each other 
and rage
became passion
became calm 
finally found 
in the 
quiet eye