Atalanta

 When the flash of gold

rolled into her path

she flashed back to the

way her feet moved

slower on the rolling timbers

above a wide dark sea

and stopped despite

her former resolve,

the taste of a quest

associated in her mind

with that shiny aura

and her known examples of men

thatt were not so bad,

after all.

Consolation

 I won't try words

where only time

can only barely

mend the ache

or throw a silver lining

under the tarnished

sky, but I am here

to listen if

only to your silences

and sit with the 

part of you that

needs someone

when the rest of

you wants to be

alone and

chase the storm

that has found you.

Protective

 The loyal hound of my thought follows you,

(though you never called for it). 

Not to spy,

not too close, just curious where you might go,

wondering if you wanted company--

that sort of thing. 

It isn't much.

My heart wants to protect you

like the glass of a lantern

that lets in air but shuts out

an extinguishing breeze--

I think these things but freeze

before I could say them aloud.

It's both not a lot

and seems like too much.

I can't protect you

from time, 

or care,

or loss

but trust you are safe

from me.

Familiar Stranger

 Every grief becomes its own creature,

a familiar stranger, 

individual as a fingerprint,

independent as it comes and goes.

It cries in the morning

like a baby

and aches and groans at night

like an old wound.

It wanders in unexpected

with the face you know,

but sometimes it just sits

unseen and

you sit with it, 

sharing the memories of what was

and the future things that will not

be.

It's nothing to fear.

Fleeting

 You wouldn't know

because I couldn't say

the feeling I had

when I held you for 

one minute

and wished it were

for life--

that minute was life to me.

A Caution

 Warming my hands at this fire

while wearing kerosene gloves;

I've never known how to be

really cautious around love.

My deepest thoughts left unspoken

and never given a name

will persist in silence unbroken

even as I burst into flame.

It's Ok Not to Want the Things You Don't Want

When you hear the squeaking hinge 

of the door of opportunity and feel

office walls are too close

to a cage for comfort--

Listen!

It's ok to push away 

another plate

when you've enjoyed a meal, 

read the fine print and 

walk (or run!)

away from the deal. 

You can have enough.

It isn't only fear of the unknown 

that gets you--

it's the known stuff.

And you can just say "no."

You can just not want things.

You can just know

what you know. 

And your mind can't take you

where your heart

won't go.