Lost Shoe

So what are you going to do
With one rugged worn out shoe?

I know one time someone loved you
With all his heart
And on good long walks would choose you
Over and over again,
And mend your tears--
That are inevitable.

I know one time,
Not long ago--
Someone loved you with all his heart.
And at nights he tucked you in,
You were content
to stretch under the bed
and wonder about this man-
who cared enough to scrub you clean.

But one day he never woke.
Faithfully, you waited and waited..
And as you lament your loss,
People worked his room—
And you found yourself
In a box, discarded…

So here you are
Couldn’t be more useful
Yet never complaining
A story to tell.

Bird

Stray bird-

Unassuming, perched on a log.

He did not see me watching.

Most birds have gone home.

Why are you still out?

Where have you been?

What distant lands have you seen?

Smoothen your ruffled feather

And brace for your next

Flight.

Flap those tiny wings, 

Go home-- your nest is waiting.

ORCHID

Delicately she fixes herself,
Opens her virgin folds towards the sun.
Coquettish not—but coy and prudish.
All fascinating; stalked the lustful man...
Mildest her scent, but only at night-

Ravished...

Now spent and trampled on the ground
By those who once admired and yearned
For her once immaculate petals.

2/12/2011, Loch Raven Lake

Baltimore, MD

St Augustine wrote:

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."