Well Dressed Young Men

Cloudy days and
well dressed young men
remind me of
buildings tall and
narrow
red-bricked plastered
and corniced
columns framing wide
open porches
lakes of gray with
green scum and
lily pads floating
next to white swans
and woodsy ducks
from stands of trees
thin and darkly
green
nestled below hills
carved to granite
crags overlooking
the old mill where
once the business
was of powder and
guns and fortunes
made
shaped a city by a
harbor where gothic
fantasies
live on

You

It is you I swim to
in these moments
when darkness
threatens and
the pulse of blood
through my veins
is an escalating roar
like the vertiginous
waterfall I am swept
toward

You I swim to when
intellect leaves and
I am again just
a frightened child
in a world gone
gone gone away
leaving me alone in
its crashing silence

It is you I swim to
because God is good
and the universe is a
budding yellow rose
waiting to release its
fragrance upon us
and the gifts of life
are numerous and
endless

Yes, it is you I swim to
because loving you
is the best of me and
your love is the
water and the sun
the moon the stars
and all the planets in
between as I raise
my face I raise my
arms to the soaring
sky and say again
and yet again
Thank you

Another Ocean

Across the land
a continent away
On the shores of
another ocean
My love speaks
to me