Ghost Towns of Love
Isolated yesterdays
feeding off arid dust
while a Greek chorus of tumbleweed
perpetually alive
rolls by
Its flirtatious bounce
now languid with age
while still confident of notice
defies rejection
lifts its bounty
above and over
trumpeting its forever once again
Its path winds gracefully through
structures of love's main street
this erected system once fresh with adorned colors
once vying for sun's cater
Now cautiously holding steady
behind blinds of sleep
awaiting sun's rise each morning
lifting one
then two eyes of clarity
opening with anticipation
while dreading their closing with moon's late-night farewell
Now the faded memories arise once again
the sagging tattered folds of smooth velvet once
now covering and hiding the burlap shrouded wounds
Cataracts of history
battling yore's sand crusted storms
challenging the weakened transparent windows of survival
attempting once again
to bury the first-kiss hunting grounds
But safe I am
inside my ghost town
its precise webs of woven chances
clinging to corner
ceiling
floors
while cupidry's eight-legged sentries
with nourishment sparse
remain at the ready
patiently waiting
for yet today's old hunger anew
Through the walls' withering cracks
riding sun slivers across the shadowed confinement
imagined smiles bring respite here
caressing life's paradigm shifts
remaining somehow fortified
even while giving way from time to time
to innocent's Time-consumptive adventure
knowing the geography of love
happily cherishes and protects its ghost-like allure
From starts
to middles
through endless ends
Time's romance reaches to embrace the ethereal
For in its seeming small windowed enclosure called youth
experience knows it is but the beginning
knows winds of love
never fully dry the waters of passion
the seedlings of hope
Even the periodic gales of doubt
opting to silence the windmill of my person
seeking to clear away
these weathered walls
these once polished eyes
knows this landscape of birth
is forever what once was
never to be destroyed
becoming instead
merely another hour in
Time's spirit of love
As another day begins to fade
in the near distance
harmonizing with the rhythm of the windmill
earth's thunder-cloud drumming
joins the delicate voice of Mother earth
love's quintessential ghost incarnate
passion personified
the love all tumbleweeds chorus
Accompanying this roll endlessly forward
this ghost town of love
Its shadows stretching toward the light
carrying life haloed in dust
to disappear in love's sunset
But only today's sunset