as you move through your life

may you always look for these

sparkles to catch your eye

lights to make your feet dance

ideas that you can tear apart

to reconfigure in interesting ways

stick all these things inside your heart

a kaleidoscope of hopes and dreams

let this play across the world

bright with love given and love received

and never ever fear to be exactly who you are

(for Dottie)

a small child learning to walk on the sand

useful lesson for balance and to learn

early how to step on ever-shifting ground

in the persistence of imaginative love

whenever I became unstable

she reached for me and held my hand

so that I did not fall

who went beside to steady my gait

it was not her never her someone else always

we lived in innocence among the dead

going in and out of the graves

a finger bone often stuffed inside a pocket

the deceased did not care so nor did we

dirt rocks bones ash were all

objects for wondrous endless play

only as we became older did we learn

that rain and tears are the same

and that a skeletal grin is a fearsome thing

(in my dreams I still run with storms

and toss a skull into the sky)