Prelude
A single drop
Dances arabesque
In the wind -

The skies have announced their final warning.

Serpentine
Here in the reddish soils
Is a lump of green and blue:
A stone, here chiseled, here rolling
As if morphed from clay into
The form it now embodies.
Smooth to the touch, and yet
Here shows signs of shearing -
Its colors more brilliant when wet.

To think, that a piece of the ocean floor
Now rests in my own backyard;
That a fragment of the sea escaped
From the jaws of the underworld;
That a cold, heavy drop of blue and green
Is silent of so bold a quest -
What other brave faces of nature
Now lie at my feet in rest?

Country Road
It's odd but I
recently discovered
that one thing that makes me
feel at home
is driving the only car on a
winding country road
windows down
classic rock
on
the radio.

I wonder why
some things
make me feel
like that.
Like ice cream sandwiches
by any swimming pool
or going to sleep to
torrents of rain and
40 mph winds.

Perhaps they are just
memories
rooted deep
in my childhood -

so deep they have become
a part
of who I am.

Stagelights
I.
black shoes click
silver sparks
flash and pop out of the dark
of the leather and the laces
and the floor.

turn up the beat, let the feet
rumble, shuffle, chassé
click across the floor, never
stop, just click, just right.

every
single
click
folds in upon the other
in place.
let
the stage
lights
bring a whole new thrill
to the silver clapped leather black shoes.

when out on the stage, no echo can compare
to the pounding reverberation of a studio room.
now the sound is empty, hollow, drumming into a void of empty seats
but the clicks keep their rhythm while in motion.

II.
roars

of an audience - then silence
as red velvet curtains
open.

frozen, still, wait - the rhythm begins.

black stage, black shoes, silver claps under toes
that jump, shuffle, stand, flap, fly.

glistening beat. sparkling steps. musical shoes.

all
across
the floor.

crescendo, with a glide
into quickening footwork, complicated
clicking
and a tumbling of silver-streaked

black

take that.