Evaporation

“Evaporation 41” by Stephanie Menard

odd times are upon me
when the air wants me
more than I still want myself
it draws out my liquids
the essence that moistens
makes supple my surface
this skin I have worn for so long
dried out clutches of atoms
are lifted away caught
like smoke in a vortex
organic invisible uprise
disrobing me taking my
skin-felt touch memories
feelings familiar estranged
given up one by one
to a volume of vapor
that age and fatigue
have resigned to empower
accruing a transfer of will
as I dissipate ever so slowly
identity forfeited unto
transformative winds
where the bits and the pieces
of what had been me
find free-radical futures
transported by conjugal skies
forming bonds with the residues
shed by old souls whom
I never had met in whole flesh
but will nonetheless join
mingling molecules
bellying clouds till the weight
of us grows to the birthing point
heavy release in the form
of fresh torrents of rain
falling falling fat globules
that diminish reform and refine
with each league of descent
till we light oh so gently
distilled cleansed and pure
to repopulate earth

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Lifecycle

 

“Abstract Evolution Series 1018” by Dina Sierra

 

 

we were born in damp caves
or perhaps came from
under the sea
before planets had names
or a language for teaching us
how to adore them
our tadpole tails twitched
with momentous intense
metamorphosis
standing us bipedal upright
enabling the reach of our
eyes and our ears to the stars
seeking company somewhere
more noble than we
finding only the echoes
of our own beginnings
as ungrateful stewards in heir
to our own earthen womb
left to struggle with finding
the right way to love her

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

The Cycle

 

“Three Generations” by Jennifer Vasquez

 

 

parents gave me life
a wife gave me manhood
children gave me wisdom

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Rebirth

“Rebirth 1” – Sculpture by Dylan Guest

 

lie face down
in your coffin
watch the earth
rise and mingle
decayed
flesh with fibers
of ghost songs
that crawl through
deep ears of leal
organic ancestry
elegant compost
of silence and soil

lie face down
in the coffin
see first-hand
that clean wonder of
death become life
different vitelline
livery warming
cold souls
disembodied
now free to attach
to fallopian
tunnels of time

(originally posted December 2013)

Existential Physics

“Turnabout”
Painting by Zivana Gojanovic
From blog.rewelch.com

in creating our temporal selves
we borrow from the sum of perpetual things
elements hung with all history
pieces and bits of particulate cosmos
gathered ingredients joined for a time
to the shape and brief length of our lifespan
infused with the spark of hypothesis
living our personal purpose for good or for ill
tiny tenants within vast chronology
soon to arrive at our unremarked ends
rarely cast for enduring remembrance
relinquishing lease on the stuff that was us
giving back to the universe new opportunities
prospects that somehow our remnants
might just reconfigure more noble existence

Evaporation

“Evaporation Offshore Zakynthos”
Painting by Traute Macom
From traute-macom.eu

odd times are upon me
when the air wants me
more than I still want myself
it draws out my liquids
the essence that moistens
makes supple my surface
this skin I have worn for so long
dried out clutches of atoms
are lifted away caught
like smoke in a vortex
organic invisible uprise
disrobing me taking my
skin-felt touch memories
feelings familiar estranged
given up one by one
to a volume of vapor
that age and fatigue
have resigned to empower
accruing a transfer of will
as I dissipate ever so slowly
identity forfeited unto
transformative winds
where the bits and the pieces
of what had been me
find free-radical futures
transported by conjugal skies
forming bonds with the residues
shed by old souls whom
I never had met in whole flesh
but will nonetheless join
mingling molecules
bellying clouds till the weight
of us grows to the birthing point
heavy release in the form
of fresh torrents of rain
falling falling fat globules
that diminish reform and refine
with each league of descent
till we light oh so gently
distilled cleansed and pure
to repopulate earth