Poem for Today

Light
In this land,
Obliterated with light,
So bright and numbing and pure,

Feeling like sound,

Destructive with its vibration,
Shaking the strips of my bones.

In this place,

She gives me colors,
White, searing, sizzling.
A flash of burning joy when we love,
Black, never ending abyss when she leaves.


That is what stays with me.
The opening of a shaft,
Cut into the earth,
Whose end is dizzy-deep.

I can see it at night, because the entrance is darker,

That’s what makes it stand out. 

She colors my life.
All the shades,
Now they are mixed,
Scrambled, and dry-cracked in the sun,
Like my old paintbox.


Sept 2011