El Dorado

Unknown Artist’s Conception of El Dorado from pinterest.com

glistening dream
gleaming legend
enveloped by
updrafts of steam
the pained sighs
from a bloodletting
slaughter of jungles

a dream who climbs
warpaths and rituals
into to the mists
of mute mountains
in search of a
shimmering
city of gold

fabled fountainhead
told of in torture
at swordpoint
a keen inquisition
in rapture of vast
inexhaustible wealth
metaphorical grail

the recalcitrant
riddle of gilded
intractable priests
its one stubbornly
undisclosed secret
persistent of
incomplete conquest

there had to be more
there just
had to be more
tenía que haber más
the lamenting refrain
carried northward
and southward

across tribal
deserts of stone
for a distance
of five hundred years
while in cloudbanks
that cling
above treelines

to unmapped
untrodden
invisible peaks
sprawls a city
so golden
it shines like
the heart of the sun

Superstitions

“Ancient Jewels – Superstition Mountains” by Heidi Searle

 

mystery maps the holes in a skull
where a gold weaver’s needle
points shadows of legend at
treasure concealed by unlucky
Dutch fingers in mountains that
loom from Apache mists heavy
with visions by scions of Spain

Gold’s Fool

 

“Fool’s Gold” by Julianne Richards

 

 

pan the rivers
that run to false seas
glean the glitter bits
wasted and washed
from a forgeried
ethics unable to
weather the wind

market value of
counterfeit virtue
on par with nil worth
of your cached
tiny treasures
the fungible specie
of errant morality

wealth is no fiscally
tangible thing it’s the
heave of the heart
in its gift and receipt
of real love in its joy
of contentment from
comfortable conscience

 

 

From my book Onionskin

Moongold

Image by Mike Gorton
From photo4me.com

highborn element
melts in a midnight blue sea
ennobling the dark

Black Pearl White Pearl

Photo by anja
From lurvely.com

he and she
they were teens
a barely gold
bauble his
pendant heart
clasping two
contrasting
low luster orbs
he the black
simple abstract
young lightly
soiled soul
she the white
pure and perfect
of heart in full
feminine flower

she wore it
through seven
sweet decades
the everlast feel
of its delicate kiss
at the cleft
of her throat
wears it still
drawing warmth
from the light
and the life in it
ornament offset
by unadorned
darkness enfolding
her lovely
blue burial gown

White Gold

“Old Couple”
Painting by Joan Breckwoldt
From joanbreckwoldt.blogspot.com

precious alloy
made stronger
more durable
thanks to base
elements metals
of homelier cast
like the glorious
glow of a love
well annealed
with respect
mundane kindness
and gratitude