HA6-3SJ

I fell in love with the North Woods

where snow and I dissolved

seeping in between the cobblestones

with belonging.

They held my secrets

and ancient history,

like forbidden sorcery

only the earth can practice.

I imagine my name whispered by velveteen moss,

stubbornly clinging

to old row house bricks with defiant faith.

But I'm just remnants of a ghost there,

my own heart haunted.

So I tried to love the ocean,

but she kept getting in her own way,

with her non-committal sway,

and everything that stayed

was tide-pool shallow.

I tried to love foreign lands,

wrap myself in different tongues -

Alpine lace was never warm enough.

Exiled to the desert,

I floated like a feather,

fallen from a crow

who never learned that she could sing.

I've retreated to the mountains,

where the stone walls and I

have become kindred,

torn between the pulling chain

of a heart that longs to love

and no longer believes.