For Kalichi

After thirty years
Our faces wrinkled and ravaged
coral and gold autumn leaves
stained glass neon as
heads upturned
we gaze, stunned, thru their
color to the clear blue sky

Sharing stories
admit to nervousness
bottle of wine consumed
talk old loves and losses
laugh at foibles politics religion
straying from the natural

Rumi passes back and forth
dog tired
humor intact
cat in lap
strangeness of cultures
re-member re-mind
re-soul

You, a mirror
You, a faceted crystal
glimpses of an old self
peer around icy rocks
embedded in sore joints
contract
expand
gently no effort
be rocked by ocean waves
gurgle
bone breathing
melting

It is so easy.

I drink in as much as
I can
it is only the be-ing
which already possessed
simply waits
patiently
for me to catch up

Trying is the stuck point
Yet no more than the word
failure
falling from your lips
to hit me with surprise
only to be reclaimed immediately as
necessary

The gift is who you have become
Even before you arrived
I knew I wanted to say
don't go
This is not a come on
not a proposal

What's the old song lyric?
My eyes adored you
though I never laid a hand on you
my eyes adored you.

LLA
Johnson Road
1 November 2008