Of Breath-bindings

They drift away

Gossamer shells

Without a flicker

Of farewell

And though they hold

Within their clutch

The staggering

Softness of touch

Where love and loss

And longing bleed

Where hope and faith

And honor plead

Where blood and sweat

And tears caress

The footfalls

Of our humanness

And monumental

Penitence

Bound in half-breath

Deliverance

They slip into the

Languid hour

Plucking the

Glory from the flower

And children from

A mother’s reach

They rend, they croon

Tender and teach

Then slip into

Impassive air

Buoyed by whispered

Wings of prayer

Or perhaps

Just a little sigh

As we murmur

Good-bye, good-by

But they do not turn

To reply

Or brush the teardrop

From our eye

Though they have stolen

Part by part

The utmost linings

Of the heart

They spin into

The atmosphere

Beneath a guise

That we call

Year

Janet~ 

So many year endings and beginnings in a year. This heat-wave has finished off this year's peonies abruptly, the school-year ends, another year of summer-vacation begins, Moments molding Milestones melting into moments making memories.

Inhale.
Exhale.
Life.