ghosts

ghosts

did the years open vistas

where hope found a home

or cast shadows on your yellow hair

and you, the praiser

whose talented tongue

erected walls of lies

to deeds of men

i too deserved

and you, a scalpel's darling

and you and you

echo in the mindways

fading

i wonder at star crossings

and wishing well your ways

grant memory's reprieve

that met and sundered

we finally came to shore

lady tencows

Lady Tencows

They laugh, "A woman's worth one cow."

She, halt by her father's hand

and Mawmaw's cross-eyed bull,

was, well, worth less.

Bold-tongued,

opined about the length of thatch

and how the sun peers in our hut

to make a longer day

                                 and me

more of laughter's fool.

But she can read the stars

and mix a brew to tend the night

and tether sorrows

with arms that know the length of love.

They watch her on the path,

blinking at her broad-brimmed hat,

while she,

standing at the edge of all we know,

scatters words.

                       Ten cows I gave for her.

                       Ten cows was all I had.