By the touch of your hair –

by the touch of your hair, its smooth caress

wild berries blooming in the pruned bush

i could tell just how you placed your breath

there on the window-pane -- the hush

of the waters in the creek by the house

unnoticed now, the waning graves

of some forgotten colonel, spouse,

banker, athlete, sage –

who are you, then? a wandering

spirit aged with fire? – do you wonder

who keeps the beat – the tambourine

that shakes its rhythm at the thunder?

your eyes will widen in the hazy night

aglow with love’s breathtaking heights --