Gifts From The Universe

The mighty oak tree gifted me
A released leaf set free
Fluttering and spiraling it's way down
Caught before it finds the ground

My tiny ship tossed and turned
The ocean a raging mighty churn
And from the wind with elegant ease
Descends a dove, a promise of peace and calm seas

A single blade of trembling grass
It's helped create a drop of dew as clear as glass
And when I fold myself down and into the ground
It's a larger reflection of heaven in it I've found

An accidental find is the blueberry patch in the wooded brush
When I enter, the birds and the bees become a welcome hush
An awkward step crushes a rotted sage
A thousand hornets erupt in a rage

I growl with pain and decide to flee
And at the lakes beach what do I see
My brother can't swim and he's taken his last gasp
It's a welcome gift when I feel him safely in my grasp

So I hope your vaults are full of arts and riches
May you find gold as you toil and dig in your ditches
For me I find that better gifts are near
Like the golden tones of Hart and Hedy that I hear
Or the silver in the sky, the emerald in the grass
and the perfumed memories of each minute as it goes past

And if you find a random token
Consider this, it's to you the universe has spoken
That those gifts missed or lightly taken
can often be the ones that leave you shaken

Gunner©

An Ugly Woman

I have a blind date says I to Billy
She is the one that hosts at The Blues on the west side of the city
Egad! moans Billy I know her man
She is an ugly woman

At her home..I am full of fear and apprehension
I cannot make a decision
I have tapped her door..but I want to run
She is after all, Billy says, an ugly woman

The air rushes by as she swings open her door
My eyes take her in and immediately hit the floor
She says hello and come on in here
Her voice is smooth and sweet on my ear

I take a risk..and look into her eyes
A deep blue, the kindness is clear, they mesmerize
The wrinkles at the corners are hardly crows feet
But tracks of love and knowledge of great things complete

Her lips are full and familiar with laughter
She has the grace of wisdom, the gifts of sons and daughters
When she takes my hand in her own
I can feel the strength and still, the gentleness she has shown

And when she took me into her embrace
I knew that heaven had more than one beautiful face
A lovely woman with needs and passions
Her strength only moved by my muscles blissful contraction

Billy is a handsome fool its true
This lady I have met is beautiful through and through
And in the mirror on the wall in her hall
Is the ugliest man of all
Gunner©

The Ladders Angel

  I found myself, once again, clutching a rung of Jacobs ladder

 contemplating my choices and other rathers

 And here the past spread out before me

 the future, only a glimpse from the rung above that I could see

 And there below me spoke an angel in all its glory

 "Hello again poor Man, its been a wonderful story"

 I laughed out loud the way only joy can

 and wondered if this being I loved misunderstood the god given gifts of man

For pity the angel, not scorn,

who will never find death and be reborn

or the demon who drowns in his own lust

never a breath of calm to fill it's withered soul gone to dust

We will each, the angel and I,  admire the beautiful rose

but it is I that finds the gift of the roses' scent in my nose

The angel will be what it be for an eternity

while I for an eternity, live and die but choose each time what I will be

And if we throw ourselves into the sea

It is I that will  feel the cold cloak of its squeeze on me

While the angel remains stout and strong

The physical senses you see, to it just do not belong

Tell me sweet angel

What know you of hate and rage or envy at your table

While I have swam in their fires

My soul taught the measure of their power untired

We see the sun you and I, its beauty undefined

Unlike you, I feel its heat, the warmth great and kind

We see my child born and grow

I feel her heart beat, her breath on my brow

And so you see my magnificent creature

We have gifts each with different features

Yours like the large decorative box void, but ribboned and bowed

Mine perhaps damaged and torn, but full with a heart of gold

Poor Angel of mine so dear

To make it real and so clear

of all my sorrows and joys, I wish I could gift you a small portion of each

and show you why I have come again, the rung in my reach

Gunner ©

First Kiss

The first kiss! Remember this?
Like a glass of clean water when you were thirsty,
it felt like a glass of life.
For you I wish
That every kiss
Would be like this.
The first lovers embrace
Like the tumbling stream falling off the mountains spine
It reminds you..this is mine.
For you I wish
That every embrace
Would find you feeling like fine lace.
The first few trembles of passions bloom
Like the wave skimming the surface of the valley's lake
It rises and pitches to fold on the bank
Then dives deep with a gasp and a shake
For you I wish
That every day
Would find you a kiss, an embrace and a shake.
Gunner ©

29 Souls

There's a mist o'er the hole
where below
on the weary bones of the ghosted iron ship
toil 29 souls

And seven miles on to my horizon
Our star makes love to the great lady's bosom
My mast a cross on the spot of the boiling burn
My foot on the tiller, my weight on the stern

My brother Moriah a wind on my back
I pull in the main, leaving not a trace of slack
The steel lines bite into my hand
a warmth compared to the cold splash of the lady's fan

The Isle of Deception ahead on my left
four foot down on the lee, one hundred fifty off the windward dock
A ghosted pilot and crew still swim, angry at the theft
Tricked and fooled, their airship down, they chose to swim rather than walk

If ten thousand were claimed by the Great Lake Superior
To wander her deep bays and drift over her quay's
To haunt her thick mists and sunfilled bays
When the time comes, I'll steer my bow deep, let the lady grab hold,
make it ten thousand and one to her fold

There's a mist o'er the hole
where below
on the weary bones of the ghosted iron ship
toil 29 souls

Gunner©