Smoke Signals

It is late but I’m
Still sitting here
Dreaming
Smoke shapes,
Clouds that animate
These landscapes of wide skies.
Somewhere here my ancestors lay buried
Forgotten skeletons in some forlorn closet
Me without the skeleton key,
But I have never felt so whole
Treading light steps on this Earth
My hand in yours,
Two sets of footprints left behind us.
The wind has not spoken to me in days
And yet this state of stagnance lets me drift
Inbetween
Collective clutter,
Murmurings from other worlds
Whispers that the path ahead is safe
Yet it remains in shadows
Stepping forward
Footfall, follows footfall
Tentative on hidden terrain
I will go there and back again
Trusting
That these moments
Can span like lifetimes
Open doors
Let me soar on sprouted wings
The future is uncertain
But here and now
There are you and I
And to live that simply
Is as beautiful
As a sunset over the ocean.
We can lean back watching the cloud-shapes
Wish on dusk’s first star
Sift our hands through one million bits of sand
But right now
There is nothing but you and I
And expansive prairie
The sun slowly cycling
Towards summer,
Fresh green sprouting in the fields
And later will come the sunkist gold
But today
We will touch the moist Earth
Feel fully this moment,
Though time reaches out tendrils
Prying into pasts,
Feeling out the future
But for me
As I watch the spiraling smoke signals
I see that I am not dreaming as I thought
But here and now
This is real!
The Earth
The sky
You and I...
And I laugh out to the wind
“Look at me now!”
I came here looking for skeletons
But those old bones
Have long grown cold
And my heart is still beating
My flesh warm,
My body has a soul.
So why do I look for things long gone?
Their spirits linger on
Whisper secrets to me.
Tell me things
My heart already knew.
Beckoned me with formless hands,
Told me which spots to stand
So that I would find you.
Because life is still going on
And on
And they knew
I would love you.