Dream of Losing Everything

In the dream
that comes back to me
night after night,
my mind happily pretends
to lose everything.

In that glorious spring
I first lose my clothes, my vanity
and then my children.

The dishes break like magic,
the glasses shatter.

The house disappears, foundation and all.

My hair falls out in bloody red tufts
and my teeth are all loose
in the confused words of my mouth.

The papers blow away in the purple wind
and my mind. . .

Oh, my mind
is the gold ring
that washes slowly,
as if forever
will never arrive,

down the watery drain.

In Love

I am in love with the new pink
and green dresses
forming at the tips
of the maple branches
outside my window.

These little girls smile
and twirl in the drops of rain
that make me shiver
and pull the blankets up
to the place where the world
wants to get in.

Little dancers
you wake me like noisy,
happy children chattering
with light.

The gray day
will not dampen your delight
in spring that is falling
into the pale green
that glows into the heat
of summer.

Water jewels
catch at your hems
and hum an absent tune
that travels softly
from your wisest voice
to my reluctantly
waking mind
and warm opening of
this understanding heart.