For a night of many sleeps with the earth as our pillow we shared the sky roots were deep limbs strong limbs supple wings wide sacred glade fertile leaves from lips taken by the wind dried to dirt given by the rain to mud sacred glade no more you share only earth for upon it there is proof of your tread wings do not mark the sky for a day of many sleeps with the earth as our pillow we shared the sky *Published in Monsters, Avatars, and Angels; MAA is available from Amazon.  # From Become Elemental  the red dress is a cracked bell jar the vacuum seal on your psyche split fraying ends and swaying swathes crumble and become one with transient sands there is no waiting there is only decay incidental transformation will you free yourself of this vestment abandon thread-bare hope and passions or be ground down join the desert tides  there is a blue beauty to the melancholy you have his memory your lunar emotions you have the dunes of bitterness and longing to shift between to erode and sand-blast what is left of your youth still and listen a finer earth calls to you above it all is an oasis only those that have abandoned cloaks heavy and empty illusions can transcend to shed the red dress cross the coarse abyss let the wind nourish your limbs dissolve desires to energetic balm dissipate hurts to myth the red dress is a hair-shirt his memory a millstone free yourself from the heavy thorns of time and regret bare yourself become elemental *Become Elemental is published in Monsters, Avatars, and Angels and available in paperback or #kindle