Poetic Referendum(s) On Life

The Red Canyon

The Red Canyon

Heat rises on a dust plain, distorts
wilt-flowers, the dry fauna fading.
My bones warm when your blooms reveal,
soul-heal each limb lit by refracted, amber light.

You offer a lotion-smoothed hand, place
inside a weathered mitt. Exactly
the way I remember the first night,
when you walked upon your father’s stoop.

Your gait, still easy. I lack amble function.
We walk the length of a solid porch. Our haven,
shade where we rock, glide side-by-side
in silence, in knowing, all though these years.

A moment arrives so perfect, I kiss you.
Any flashback since the day I was born
couldn’t compare, witness your arriving joy,
like the cicadas, tremor from invigorated rest.

You stand to refill our lemonade.
My hand brushes the soft underside
of your boot-cut denim. I beg, “Please,
don’t be long,” grinning like the boy.

With sunsets as red as wood-glow fire,
in our cayenne canyon of soaring rock,
time eternal to the vortex clock. Sky
washes starry-black on the bedroom porch.

No hunger for dinner tonight, wrapped in
silk linen. The sandalwood aroma drift
encircles cooling limbs entwined, when
I hear tender beating beneath breathing.

You cradle a tender man, soothed.
Stolen glances absorb calm of irises, color
sunrise, renew these pale eyes. Fuel,
the warmth of that hand, heating a soul's canyon.

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6.5.24
32 lines, prose-free verse
6.10.24 some major, hopeful final, edits. 6.13 tweaked a bit more, tightened.
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Imagine many years from now in dry heat of Arizona, I’ll put boots up, she’ll drop capri-wrapped sticks atop, idle in our solitude. After all the years, having spoken all that need be said, transmissions eternal will send between two sated hearts via quieted souls.


Prompt: “They might have aged 50 years, but when they held (hands), those hands felt exactly like they did the first time.”

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Write from the Heart Poetry Contest  (E) Write a heartfelt piece based on the prompt provided. #2093224 by Purple Princess