Month: January 2018

A pale moon sinks beyond the waves that roll backward, out to sea. Then dawn arrives, blue and still and silent where the sound should be.   Sun too bright illumines day with artificial gaiety, tricking us with summertime, though winter in reality.   Then stillness yields to scorching squalls blowing in from desert plains—… Continue reading Santa Ana Winds: Winter in San Diego →

If snow had drifted in the night, or sleet beaten on the shore . . . if sheets of ice had glazed the road, and wind whipped against your door . . .   and you were late—the clock ticked, and stormy weather stole your time— or if you took the path more slow, worried… Continue reading Twist of Fate →

How quickly I swing out of bed, exercise and take a shower, read the news and toast my bread, and all the while, your life narrows.   It seems unjust—when you’re not well— that I still go for morning brew, weed the garden for a spell, blithely stoop to tie my shoe.   That I… Continue reading The Hand We’re Dealt →

Winter storms have claimed the shore and buried it in piles of stone. We've walked across these mounds before, but now I navigate alone.   My eye is fixed upon one stone: a jagged stripe of black runs through. End to end, it melds the bones together, and I think of you.   When your… Continue reading Broken Heart, Mending →

The fire waits with tiger paws on silent haunches by the hill, then mounts the rock with clinging claws, and contemplates the moment it will   pounce—on sagebrush dry as bones, under a ghostly quiet moon, slink through tinder, stalking homes, and spring atop a shingled roof.   In blazing orange black white cape it… Continue reading Tiger Fire* →

I don’t ask for your name, and you don’t ask for mine. But sitting at this counter, here, at this point in time, we’re somehow oddly intimate— our lives are intertwined. Elbows close enough to touch, unseen wall between, you—with your own narrative, me—with my own dreams.   You have a sleek laptop, I have… Continue reading Intimate Strangers, Starbucks →

We walk the seashore—as we always do— and pause, taking in the recent changes: the sky is water-colored deeper blue, and you and I—we briefly note our ages.   The waves are colder, sand is mirror smooth. Gone are children’s footprints, and their laughter mere echoes, now that they’ve returned to school. They rush to… Continue reading Autumn, and Shifting Tides of Time →

Time runs through our fingers—liquid gold, racing toward the rivers of the past. No matter how we grasp and try to hold, treasured moments run away too fast.   Each instant lived is one that will not last. If we ignore its value, we are told that time’s a finite resource, not so vast, and… Continue reading Capturing Time →

The moon invites herself into my room and stirs me from my dark and dreamless sleep— a mythic mistress climbing from her tomb, or silver siren rising from the deep.   Tonight she flaunts her diaphanous veil, scatters shards of light across the sheets, grazes cheek, and lips, and drifts at will, aware that this… Continue reading 3 a.m. Encounter with the Moon →