Change

The spider web,
cracked –glass windshield of change
is the inevitable accident
I’ve been waiting for
all this life.

It came striking,
blackening my third eye,
the only eye that really sees
with my heart
without the selfish child
of the mind, negotiating to pretend
just a little longer
that happiness
is just around the corner
if I just wait patiently
for the impossible to arrive.

I’ve waited for years
at one busy intersection
or another
watching the locomotive
of time pass dangerously close.

I’ve felt my body shake,
trembling from the inside out,
and from the outside in
to my empty core of knowing
and I contemplate the ease
with which I could step into the path
of this great movement
and be released into the cold, hard steel
of liberation from all I have suffered.

I could take flight from the burden on a day like today—
a bird with no care, but for the direction of the winds.
I’ve kissed the faces of my children,
blessed them all with the peace of hope, love,
and said goodbye with no tears of longing.

I will not miss the color red.
The salty smell of the ocean
can’t help but follow me into paradise.
The taste of sweet wine lingers at my lips
to be wiped away.

I will throw my head back laughing at the silence
that comes after the darkness of this departure.
Courage will be the only ticket I need
to climb aboard this pure light
that has changed everything.

I only pray
for safe passage
to the next stop
where all the others
who have traveled before me
will meet me,
take me in their arms
and guide me
to my next home.

The Smile of a Stranger

There you are Love
just over my shoulder
ready to reach out and touch
the skin that covers this modest soul
like a tent ragged in the wind and rain
waiting for the sun to break out
and warm us.

On nights like this
it is like you never left me.
You’ve loved me over and over
without ever placing a finger to the curve of my lips
or cupping the flesh of a smooth hip
or tracing the breasts offered to sunsets
where we almost denied ourselves—
You surprise me, delight me
with that sweet understanding
that the body is not necessary for this love
to satisfy the flower essences trapped
inside the pulsing of blood,
starting these tremors in my core
like the Earth suddenly coming to a halt,
breaking to fragments of clay and dust
releasing me from all ignorance and suffering.

I only have to close my eyes,
my Sweetest One,
and find your breath
fanning the embers of eternity
at the nape of my neck.
This small gesture of hope
opens my heart to a sacred text
we both signed our names to
with each lifetime we have found each other.
This truth leaves me filled to overflowing.
The Empress of this heart is never alone
when I only have to call your name
and you answer me in the smile
on the face of every stranger I meet.