When long days drag on me And my soul cries in the dark Then I speak my prayer in sleight And He slips it into my jar. Prithee – give it wings to fly up

Flowers in the desert Vibrantly grow forth In yellows and purples Despite the salty Earth And when I think about

Among hills Apache red Where damas and vaqueros Built up a homestead Past the mercados And hills with a vague past

Music starts my little church And bids us goers “come forward” - Timid and cleansing at first - Bringing voices to one accord Then Chris’s voice waxing loud

Sweet crickets, the tune You’re playing tempts me to sleep. By your tune, I will drift off Better to a place dark and deep. The low moon and toads

Gentle Earth, I beg of you— Whisper to us the first sign of sp… Annul this wintry despair And a season of life anew, bring. From the depths of Baja

Bless each palo verde bloom— Those cuplets kissed by the sun My vision wants to consume That thus have raptured my love. See how they speckle the tree

What a curtain Bisbee has That keeps Mexico subdued And influences the lands From which the Sierra was hewn. What purple folds keep Oaxaca

Jesus stole him from me; A cleft of my heart went With my beloved to grand company. Shock distracted the void - Grief befriended melancholy

Rabat is a black pearl Of cellophanic rainbow Gazing upon waves that curl And lick a shore little known. Gibraltar is the dock

I’m envious of the clouds That float happily in the sun— Changing into colorful shrouds— Lumping from many into one. Their most compatible friend—

Like gold of Havilah God is true and straight. I can exhort Adonai For his tender heart. Be it ambivalence

Thy being’s grace Is pleasant to behold - As beautiful as The jacaranda When its blooms

You can no more catch the sun Than I can command the rain Yet love is an experience Worthy of anguish for gain.

I have nothing to offer Except this small heart of mine. You come with laughter. I have a past much maligned. You come with true stories