As if you were Seagrass

As if you were Seagrass 

I will sit you
Astride my pony
Make you feel her 
Mighty shoulders working
Mane wind blown
Nostrils flaring
In morning's virgin rays

Her steamy breath flowing back
With the early chill.

Push your boots deep 
Into the stirrups.

Wrap the reins 
About your right hand.

Stand tall in the saddle
Your left hand in a balled fist
Settled into your hip.

Find her rhythm 
Her cadence  
And allow your body
~~as if you were seagrass~~
To undulate with 
The song of her hooves
Upon the sod's dewy sheen. 

Ride!

Ride her
Until every pursuing memory

Stream behind her tread...
Until the joy of the saddle
And the chime of your spurs

Join with the wind in your hair

The beauty of your pony

And the thrill of your fresh

New morning! 

to walk like a man

she shucked my boots like corn
tossing each into a dark corner
then commenced what I could not expect.
to my embarrassment 
she attended my severely worn feet
ignoring their reviling condition 
having negotiated many wide and deep hills
travelling valleys 
transversing streams and rivers
to arrive home
following years of war
just short of daybreak.

say what you may 
concerning the intimate parts
of the body of a man
I say they are the feet.
they are that fragility
that determine the walk 
of a man
and to them she concentrated
her full attention
while I tightly closed my eyes
to forbid I burn into
everlasting memory 
the images of this woman
my darling girl
rubbing away so many miles 
of Indian trails
wagon paths
and deer traces
across painful journeys 
to our place of reunion.

hearing naught
save her warm breathing
I eventually fell asleep
waking after full dark
to a single candle's glow.
I found she had bundled
my blistered feet
in a warm wrap
then joined me in sleep
at my side.

I am now an old man
marred by the indignities
of advanced age.
but i fondly recall
the ministry
my dear wife proffered  
by loving me 
from the ground up.

say what you may
concerning the joining together 
of a man and a maid
i insist the most tender affection 
ever i received
was the early morn
i returned following years 
of devastating combat
to be restored
by my darling girl
from toes
to heels
from instep to arch
by the anointing of her tears
and the gentleness of her hands
that i might once again
walk like a man.

 

reasons

there are reasons fireflies sleep
in the morning
while butterflies sleep
at night.
and there are reasons
lovers love best 
in fire light
and fighters fight best
in the light.

there are reasons i keep quiet
when with you
while i talk best 
when alone.
and there are reasons
i never sing in darkness
and reasons my soul's construct
is stone.

there are reasons i leave
no footprints 
yet shout down canyons
so wild.
and there are reasons
i strive for achievement
and reasons i grow gentle
my child.

there are reasons i do not gaze
into campfires
but open my eyes
to the stars.
and there are reasons
i study
the cosmos
but shudder at venus and mars. 

there are reasons i fascinate
over road maps
yet trust no
tale of amazing daring-do.
and there's one reason
i forsake every lover
but return in the moon glow
to you.