mindspring (by anthony and william dimichele)

i went to the mindspring
an oasis in a desert
the place has been off limits to humans
since the 1930s
and so has gone wild
i was the first white man there
to see such vast vistas
and to hear the silence
that was immense
it covered me and everything else
with its invisible blanket
i knew in my heart which was suddenly
enlarged
what it meant to be part of the earth
rather than an occupant
of rented space
there were no other humans on earth
but me and there were
a few flies
the mountains were punched up and isolated
blocks of jagged rock
the alluvium
crept up their sides in low
long slopes
they were alive and almost
organic
i too was detached
and part of it all
i did not need a hand to hold or
the reassurance that someone else
was just over the hill or at home
waiting
i wanted to crouch down in the sun
expectant but for what
i did not know...
now i am back
not deeply changed
but more solitary than ever before
our place is in the wild
by the ocean or in desert spaces
places where we are neither beggars
nor kings
but bits of the foundational dust
eternal
*

changing faces

It is too late
to change faces
or to buy peace and freedom
from doubt
last night I dreamed you were wearing
a white gown
perched above a wedding party
on a chair with long legs
holding you twenty feet
in the air
you had a lyre in your lap
and you hummed as you played
i was hiding in the woods
that bordered the clearing
by the river
watching
waiting
wrapped
in my black feathers
with the horizon in a circle
around my heart
like a cage

between 2 sorrows

on this stake
blind faith and
stubborn love are crushed under
some sunny day's
unimaginable weight
thinking i am you
will not drive
the storm
from the heart
shared
between two sorrows

left burning

i was at the threshold of my self
of my limits
and inside you
at the same time
you glowed in an ache
that arched into me
a pleasureable pain
in which we shared
our speechless
bruises
and a candle
left burning on the hearth