The Break

From August, 2010

I dream often of the ocean, of waves I can never see beneath.

The other night I dreamt of you.
I told you "It's over," and you held on to me.
I might, deep down, be holding on to you too.

And you saw that! I know that you saw
behind my stone wall of calm words and logic.
Logic that says we have to let go.
I know you saw me,
saw me,
because your face shifted.
Your eyes kindly placed each stone on the ground,
coaxed my lips into yours,
and reminded me that I can never build a wall you cannot see behind.

Then we walked in different directions into the night.

All this has led me to a wooden porch with dried garlic hanging by the windows.
Inside, a bed is made for me,
and a grandmother waits with so much love in her eyes
the whole world must feel it.
The shelves are lined with poems.
There are blueberry fields out back.
I am thinking of you, and how you hate poems.
You are thinking of me.
Maybe we are even looking into each other's faces again.
Maybe we are sitting on that stone wall again and cars are driving by.
Maybe we are out at sea, treading water, unable to hold on to each other.

Nine Peaches

Walking through the door

of Kathlyn’s family cabin,

we flick on the lights. 

Nine round peaches 

sit atop the counter before us. 

A bag of croissants, too,

brought back from Paris this week

by Kathlyn’s mother.  

The whole world is represented 

in tapestries, baskets, 

ceramics, paintings

all carefully placed.

But the peaches are from here, 

Georgia, 

where Kathlyn comes back to rest.  

She lives in Nairobi now.
She has been seeing turtles lately

and wonders if they are a sign. 

She’s seen them born,

climbing out of their shells

moving towards the ocean

across a beach they will return to

when they have their own babies. 

Their bodies know. 

She’s met one almost 200 years old.

A female, Mary, 

who swam across the Indian Ocean

to show up on the island of Lamu

where she’s witnessed colonialism 

and the 21^stcentury. 

Her body knows.

Mary once moved across a beach

just born

trying to make it to the ocean

when many of the others around her 

wouldn’t. 

And here she is.