What time was it when I believed?
I can't remember true faith -
The surrender and the fall
Fearless upon the pillow of the unknown seducer
Arms open
Heart beating
To the summoning of a new adventure

What time was it when I shaded my eyes against the glaring light?
And forgot to listen to voices on the wind?

I think that it could have been sometime when desire slipped in with quiet fortitude
Veiled amid the clouds that slid across a winter moon

That was a long time ago

I have watched 41 winter moons
Waxing and waning against the backdrop of countless stars

I have danced beneath the same number of summer suns
My heart inclined to the West
Where water and sand take their ritual vows
And combine in a perfect flux eternal

Requests made of the angels remain unanswered
As the teachings of age are a tempered revealing
To a long and savage sight
Now sitting with a foreign guide called patience

I lift slightly the silver veil and look with daring eyes in the ways of hope
Towards believing

FAITH

We will concede to each other's indiscretions
Ill fitting garments
In this aftermath of indecision where fervent promises are made
To cover those that were broken
With thin sheets we make our new bed
In the morning you are quiet
While I bear my conscience with awkward gaze
And smoke rises from the passion of night
Trailing on the tip of your cigarette
I will give you everything again
While you love the imperfections you reflect in me
There is a word for us
Every nuance
Suggests its possibility
Faith
Tremulous in its infancy
Becomes the clean slate where we begin again

DESERT SONG

And I long for you today
In later years
Off highway

Motel brother of my memories
Where we tore down that road
Of Arizona dreams
We
Two
Watching the dry brush fly by
In the rearview mirror
Tumbleweed bristling heat

On that wavering desert tar light
Of orange red rock
And a dry blue sky
Bright with vague anticipating clouds
Wanting thunder
Forgiving rain
To exonerate our lives

Out of L. A.
Running

And we among that perpetual monotony
Of sage and brush
Reminding us of our lives behind

And lusty laughs
Loving the wind
Our hair flying wild
Touching hands
Mouths
Tongues
Wet as precious water

Speed
Quenching our desire

Then
Where the sun set
On a flat cactus plain
I closed my eyes to the twilight

We ran that highway down hard

Slivered wisdom
Chased down on the tip of a beckoning finger
Saying yes

And you following me
Sensibility thrown out the window
We raced
Headlong into that dream space

My victim lover

In the catalyst of my dreams
You
Me

Warped words
And the swerving highway
Glittering in surreal motion
Before us where our eyes met the surface of the night

I always loved that open space

Possibility rewards

Adolescent memories frying
On the tails of exhaust fumes
Out behind us on the asphalt remains of our youth…