I wander up long cobblestone stairways overgrown with the Cupid’s praying hands & curled locks of English ivy
my bare feet coming translucent to the deep cool of winter’s bones melting in the youthful chartreuse waistcoats of new grasses’ playful tufts
by & by the hill swells & breaks like a wave into a delirious froth of cherry and plum blossoms
and our orchard tumbles down the other side like a million snowballs frozen in motion
it splashes into a dark current of forest, as the sun dips low in spring’s tangerine sky


An inhalation begins 
and I think of you


I follow the powdery lilt of blossoms and magnolias ebbing & flowing in the evening air
Meandering wood paths carpeted with tiny bells of ochre & petals soft as the sunrise’s first clouds, and laced with burning nettle
A late-to-bed wood bee, with his fuzzy fat bottom, urgently ducks and seeks solace between cast-off leaves on the orchard floor 
as a strobe-light flick of bejeweled brown wing appears, silently snapping invisible curfew-protestors from the air
I fall head over heels and run circles in my heart


I think of you


Doves jostle in their roosts overhead, spill from treetops and dissolve into the dark forest below
sleepy bees wander homeward, pockets heavy with pollen, giddy & softly drunk 
overflowing the threshold of their honey boxes
above, an arc of evening song still echoes - a mad orchestra of birds throwing their hearts toward the sun’s farewell
and the blood thrum of the Earth’s heart beats electrically beneath my soles


I think of you


My bare legs swing out from the weeds at the edge of the orchard field, tangled with nettle, and a hitchhiker rides on my toe
brown and shiny as a nut, curled up, he slowly raises his head to peer at me with mushroom stalk eyes, as if waking from a dream
and then lays a silvery trail across my skin, a tattoo, or a kiss
I leave him on a dandelion at the edge of the stream, where the water is shockingly cold & clear
when it rises over my ankles


my breath hesitates
& starts again


I think of you


Copyright 2020 Amber Jade

The climate change
Between home and here
Is measured in the color of rain

It is not a thunderous watershed of tears
From the cheeks of betrayed fiery Goddesses
That rips boulders from the shoulders of mountains and throws them helplessly toward the sea
​
And it's not a mist like the empathetic breath of sea spray
Reaching a gossamer hand back to soothe the hardened black scars of volcanic rage


When rain comes down here, grey and dominant 
it paints the forest in a sigh
shades of deepest vermillion and chartreuse emerge
truffle brown the trampled leaves
where my naked, cold Hawaii feet go seeking the sands of forest beaches
For some faint echo of the comfort of home


And then something happens
The blue edges of droplets
slow, like icicles forming, in their downward merging
They organize themselves soundlessly
to form perfect lines
The edges crisp and clean like cut glass
And the faces of people in shop windows and on street corners
organize themselves into the clean squares between lines
A picket fence of faces and rules and faces forms
Ruler straight
Mannequin still as they are sped through assembly line structures of work, beer, sex, shame, consumption
with the terminal clicking of precise machines
Ikea melamine boxes and relentlessly similar stainless steel fixtures operate seamlessly
So the concrete tubes of public transportation
Shoot their yellow pills of humanity down the throats of the city
In perfect, pre-measured increments
A testament to design and efficiency


And the dark woods with their explosions of rapturous underbelly color
that lace the edges of urban synchronization 
With dripping unruly tresses
Are allowed to argue the passionate cry of nature
Against the architecture of concrete pathways
Designed by clipped and trimmed humans to best complement them
Like a crib complements (and efficiently contains) a beloved but fussy child


The plaintive song of the wild heart
the padding of a Goddess’s bare feet on raw earth
Heard, yes, but from a measured distance


Copyright 2020 Amber Jade