Send Down The Ladder

(for Kelly Dickson)

I know she's up there

Hiding in the leaves

A tree house

That's-for-me house

Half-way between clouds and flower garden

Hey up there! Excuse me! Pardon!

Let down the rope ladder

Send down the rope ladder

I know she's up there

Actin' like she don't care

I brought

Sandwiches and tea

Send our secret ladder down!

It's dull here on the ground!

I even brought two lovely ripe plums

And with that--presto!--down it comes

Now we're two up in the tree

Quite contentedly

NO BOYS!

NO BOYS!

NO BOYS!

Just Baby K

And me

Queen and duchess

Of the cloud and garden tree.

_______

Nocturne

Silent as a stringed instrument,

I am untouched, unshouldered, incomplete and wooden--

Hear it in my breathing that gleaming in the moonlight is not enough.

There are a million pitches and tones that I could be,

But tonight, there is only one.

Gather me in,

Be my Blue Fairy--

Allow me the knowing that when I step off of the shore of myself,

You will be my welcoming opposite bank.

You are a woman, my mirror,

But the other side of the mirror--

Your body is the home I curve into,

A treble clef from which

All of my music proceeds.

_________