Sign's Valentine

Two heavy volcanic stones

I rescued from the coast

One oblong but flat enough

To place the other on

In the shape of a fish's head

One oval eye embedded

With a gleaming yellow shell

A circle for a mouth

I set them on the wall

Above my wooden gate

To remind me of Jonah

And the rollicking sea

Here in the desert

In the belly of the world

Awaiting my delivery

Sprouting Valentine

I spy the past limping

Winding through the future trees

It keeps coming back

Showing up in the oddest places

Today I found a seed in my pocket

A tiny brown planet

Worn down by too many nights

Spun far out of its orbit

All these years keeping

A consciousness of me

I felt it held me in its grip

Longing to be planted somewhere 

As soon as I would find it

How much time we'd wasted

Hurrying toward the ground

How Else Valentine

At the end of the year

When the year just resurrects

Another year I cleared

My small closet of all

I'd counted on the treasures

I'd stashed away and found

An old shopping-cart 

And piled all of them in

And walked the streets

Of last year's dreams

It all had to go

Into memory's savings account

And little by little would

Until that closet was empty

The shelves cleared of dust

A few hangers jangling

To hang the future on

How else stay calm

How else go on

Cast Out Valentine

After the first rejection

Which must come to everyone

Little acts of kindness

Tried to cover it up

But they knew they had to flee

Freeing and cleansing at first

To leave everything behind

Watching terror shrink

 

With every eager step away

After all it was a coming home

To old friends who took them in

Found them a little house

 

On the edge of town

Where the boy could play

And grow wonderful in peace

Getting ready to return