Startled by Existence

Half-baked (Cathy S. now Cathy J.) ‘84

Cotton Cathy, cornbread and cream

You would be my life-long dream.

 

(Sorry Cathy for calling you some twenty times in a row one night when you didn’t answer the phone. Who was I to know that you were sick in bed and ignoring me! Boy was I embarrassed.)

Equinox   (Karen H. now Karen B.)/85

Fall entered in

overnight,

to both wind and heart.

 

It came

the passenger

of a great gray motorcade,

A mass

born of equal-night, and artic high.

 

It came with rain

At the beckon of our Lord,

to the trees of our Lord,

and man.

 

It came with chill

etching

dusted leaf

and breath.

 

And though the trees

have yet to flame,

My heart is warmed in anticipation

of

spiced cider, mittens,

wool color, and

and our eyes.

(Thanks Karen for giving me my first taste of requited love. Undoing a heart that had started to graft with yours hurt as much as anything in life. But I would not trade the work God did through you, for me, for anything.)

The eye-man strikes again. – to Dianne W. now Dianne L. /88

Tangerine, ruby, and fire:

A frame for the forest

He poured in your eyes.

(Thanks D. for refusing my kiss, it made friendship that much easier, and I can look your husband in they eye.)