On the two of us,

gathered, solemn,

this day’s sun also rises.

Single sentinel form, so singly white,

catching with me,

some warming

in these early rays.

Simple tulip-life

rising undaunted

from grassland,  untended.

Someone planted you here,

life happened

and they left.

How do you still bring

friendly bloom?

Reflections in white

on the disconsolate.

I stretch out across this distance,

Me, with arms and you

your green and white limbs!

Wishing, somehow,

to bring it all back again.

Somehow to brush back

the night spun cirro-stratus . . .

But it is too far, this past

our friends are gone.

Yet I do stare; following your gaze upward

as if staring could bring your light!

My thoughts pass

beneath the warmth.

Heart and brain in fog

weightier sheets it seems

than those tons of droplets

hung in morning blues

all around me.

Drifting up with random warmth,

In chaotic shades

as sunlit-seamed memories

they rise to somewhere . . .

Oh, self, pray, give way!