Monday, January 20, 2014

Soul On Fire

Soul On Fire
(For Elaine)

She could break your heart
with the look in her eye
and just standing near her
could light your soul on fire.
Long, long ago I watched
her motor on through men
like a fast, fast mustang
on a midnight moonshine run.

To this day
I still don't know why
I was special to her
though she tried to tell me
a thousand times over.
To her last breath
the light in her turquoise eyes
was ever a mystery to me.
She lit my eternal flame
out of soggy wet mud
and saved my life more than once.
She was my lover, my best friend,
my reason for waking each day
for half my lifetime.
For these, I owe her
a debt of gratitude
I never can repay.

She never put down her colors
and told all
who might do us any harm,
“Do whatever you like
but don't you
fuck with my family.”
She could fight as fiercely
as a snow white tiger
and was as intelligent
as the midsummer solstice
is long
She carried with her
a magic as powerful,
as wise, high, and beautiful
as Shengren mountain sides---
one part in the dark shadows,
the other bathed
in vivid sunshine.

She could break your heart
with the look in her eye
and just standing near her
could light your soul on fire.
In the end, for me she did both
because she lit my eternal soul
with a flame brilliant, bright and true
and then one dark winters night
she left me standing alone.

They say every angel
who gets their wings
also becomes a light and a song
to kindly guide those who wander
the green hills, rolling seas
and sandy deserts of Mother Earth.
Tonight, tonight my friends
look high up into the Southern skies
there shines a new star
in the velvet night
whose name
sounds like a wildflower.

Dewey Dirks

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