Earth
Sweet and tasty
Every nation gets a slice
Like it was a layer cake
Children lick frosting crust
Every birthday
The candles get shorter
Only so much to go around
They burn dirty like oil rigs
Like Molotov Cocktails
Nightfall at the gas pump
A lone water tower
Across the desert
Where the foothills slump
Sky red velvet blood, charcoal smear
Rorschach clouds
Dot above power lines
The party is over
Wicks expended liquid
Pooled then congealed
Approaching winter
Billionaires in orbit
My tank begs for filling
Descent
The days descend
Drop one by one
Twirl with every breath
Die at my feet
In brittle shrivel
Their colors fade
Pile on one another
Earth’s sweet decay
Absorbs
Blanket my base
Each passing season
Roots blind dark search
Finger wrap deep set stones
Gone are the days
Of sun and rain
Opulent greenery
Sap flowing easy
This soil is rich
Of all that went before
Bark, thicker skinned
Rings accrue
Bare branches
Creak in wind chill
Ice storms cruel winter coat
Snaps high boughs
I stand fixed
In Earth’s eternal hum
Anchored in descent
Destinations
Late winter
She pumped my gas
Thermal underwear top
Flannel shirt for a second layer
Jean jacket for the third
Under wool cap
Curly hair running wild
Cheeks and nose ruddy
From damp cold wind
I could tell she liked me
Always had a smile
Back then I mostly pondered
What it would be like
To settle down, a lake cottage
Sustained by our simple jobs
Wood stove,
Some shared TV show
To talk about
Wait for better weather
Back then
All I did was ponder
Imagine what it might be
To live without ambition
To settle, settle in
Exist like a buck in the woods
Roots and dried berries
In lean months
Wary of a snapped twig
Little cover
After the leaves dropped
She was a contented doe
Never wanting much
Satisfaction in survival
Escape the bow and arrow
Ignore approaching headlights
My restless soul
Searched for more
Beyond a paycheck,
Weekly favorite TV show,
Splitting wood on the first frost
She later became a butcher
In the local market
Apron smeared with blood
Wild hair piled high in fishnet
Like it was hauled in
From a deep sea trawl
She, always smiling
As I pondered years away
Tapping and scrawling
Searching for more than she cared to find
I took long to learn to live
Without answers or destinations
The woods will always be the woods
Deep and still
In green
And frail seasons