Flowers After Rain

Before the sun sets


Before the sky turns from light
into the impossible thickness
where stars hang sweetly
inside the shield of the night


Before I am aware of the moon
climbing strong and quickly
from the edge of the earth
into the wide open skies


I know she is there--
the tides insisting
the Moon make her way
as she has done
for as long as the ocean
has dared to love her.


And, in the afternoon
of this spring day
I breathed deeply,
stretched my body out
under the pink petals
of an apple tree
pretending I was the only woman
so alive,
and let the softness cover
my face
as the blossoms kissed me


these handmaidens
of the moon
disguised as flowers,
round and smiling,
after the rains.