Still Life

Slumber awash in adventure

quickening pulse

colors flash

redgreybrown blur

I hurl through time

space compressed

unmoored

from the Cartesian plane

Memory my vessel

lurches fore and aft

phantasmagoric fog

o’er the sea

Loosed from gravity

capricious waves

unfurl paisley

Eyelids arise

Peace

startles me

awake

unfamiliar

crisp calm

I blink

breathe in

new light

still

bright still

life

photo: apples, 15 rue du Pont Vieux, Nice

Valentine Sweet Valentine

                                              Pluto assured me
                                              he had nothing to hide

no interstellar entanglements

no comets on the side

my heart once in fragments

magnetized wholesome in unity

Peace settled with mirth

as joy replaced sorrow

on wings I flew

without thought for the morrow

shunned fear as laughter grew

shameless in her rebirth

until thoughts of love arose darker

like those of Dorothy Parker

photo: public domain