like a fearless tiger

there used to be dreams
unbidden, effortless
the heart and the mind
roamed all the wilds like a fearless tiger
hungry and alive in every stripe of the tail
eyes wide open at the top of a cascade
of falling water or the parapet of a castle
pennants snapping over snowy mountains

there used to be dreams
irresistible, compelling
every muscle aching,
dripping with sweat and laughter
rounding each new bend
whether frigid with cold or
loose with fatigue
sandpaper skin soft as a cool mist

there used to be dreams
they came from nowhere and everywhere
driven by instinct, unbounded
nature’s children first and always
inside the man-built confines
stop to feel the frantic beating heart between us
insistent, full
we could dream again

###

inner tabby

inside

you hold the wild

your dance so fierce with joy

that leaps and flies among the clouds

alive

###

dreamless

I walk out to the middle of the field. Like a little kid, I plop down into the cool grass and sprawl out on my back. I just lie there, looking up at the sky. 

It’s one of those super-blue days, and there’s these lines of happy clouds coming across, ensemble, like a choreographed dance troupe. I lazily watch the travel of the clouds, blown along by an insistent wind.

The longer I lie there, the more I feel and hear the wind. It whips wisps of my hair across my face. I can hear the crinkle of the occasional tumbling leaf, remnant of winter, blowing past. 

I glance sideways through the grass and notice the dandelions. I feel kind of sneaky looking through the blades of grass, as if I’m somehow hidden.

But, no, there I am, grown adult, lolling in the grass, just watching the clouds, you know.

I close my eyes for awhile and roll my head back and forth, noticing the strange rainbow I see pass underneath my eyelids. Then I put my palms over my eyes, and I see the most psychedelic blue.

I open my eyes again, and just lie there, sinking down into the grass as my muscles slowly loosen. 

I am in the clouds, dreamless.

How many years has it been since I let myself do this simple, amazing thing?

###