Your light always goes out before mine and soon 
I know you’re sleeping by the rhythms. 
Breath crescendos and the little bird 
God fed you before birth slows its beating. 
I try to match your inhale 
exha— 
inhale, no. I take deeper breaths and that’s okay because 
I know you’re mine in spite of polar patterns. 

Our skin sticks together. 
I drink you in through touch and cells colliding, 
taste the sweat like glue with moonlight 
outlining bed sheet curves and breaths— 
In. Out. Rise and fall and heart, 
I hear you. 
Even with my eyes closed I make maps with 
stars as destination markers, places I 
should touch but I wait patiently ‘til morning. 

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. 
      But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: 
      To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. 
      To know the pain of too much tenderness. 
      To be wounded by your own understanding of love; 
      And to bleed willingly and joyfully. 
      To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of    loving; 
      To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; 
      To return home at eventide with gratitude; 
      And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. 

-Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet

-Joni Mitchell “A Case of You”

sole to pavement, crossing yellow lines and

falling into what will take me to you.

scratchy, worn in machine breathing life

into empty mattresses.  erasing nights when reaches

only bring me closer to vacant pillows.  

shake.  and almost lose my balance but 

remember where i’m going. 

steady.  making miles minutes and

blurring trees with birds.  loved ones and their

homes melted together to separate when life

slows down, and only then

whisper words of gratitude.  

whistle blowing      shaping in the wind

becomes a distant echo, a reminder.

of how love is built on traveling.

and oh, i love to travel.