Belly Up

Fat and content

and yet bemused

by the goddesses ways

with me

she laughs when I cry

I cry when I laugh

I live these days moment to moment

measuring it seems with

the number of times

I breathe to relax

the last stages of

my anxious youth

moving into my middle age

belly up

and somedays feeling

fat and content.

@Elvia Arriola

Missing

When kitty is sleeping I can hear her

gentle wheezing

the legacy of a long ago

bout with a vet's

overdose of anesthesia

and I wonder how it is she

can lay there so peacefully,

this odd cat of mine

as I sit over her with a

disturbed peace

because I've not heard from you yet

and because this morning I didn't

want to let you go.

@Elvia Arriola

Away in Love

I sit in a hotel room in Chicago

staring at three burning candles

wondering if you sense

this yearn for your touch as you follow

the endless stretch of highway

to the south

away from the deepest blue lake

the flat plains

and back to Southern dusty roads

away from the icy blast of wind

swirling through narrow alleys

chopping away at tall glass buildings

unable to break the

window I peer through

with my tear filled sight

wrapped in a burning

desire to hold you

once again

in the full embrace

of love.