House of dreams/and sorrows/of what we knew/looking out/the window eye lids/ yearning/for elsewhere/but we knew fat iris/violet blue/and tawny gold/we knew tiger lilies/spheres of purple rhododendron/the scented lilac tempting us at the top of the street/we knew summer/blew the loosening domestication/of roses/far away/we knew waiting for the seedling of change

In the face of such light/we wonder/such unasked/unanswered questions/fixed by mystery/we bathe in unadulterated hope

Surrounded by love/on the church steps/seeking assurance/that in what lies ahead/love endures/living the baptism/claimed that day/surrounded by angels/whispering/love lives on

The road to friend’s door/the holy welcome/the utter peace of relaxation/stories shared/luxuriating in beauty/luminous in rest

I remember I had the careless urge/to lecture him/one day/ about civil rights/after he told me to pass/for white/and he said/I left home in a slave labor ship/cut cane/faced off death/disdain and pain beamed from/angry eyes/I’m not sure I ever apologized/for my mistaken arrogance/ignorance/all I could think was how far they came/and how carefree and almost easy/they looked on the way

They took care to send love/over miles/through uncertain days/they took pains to be present with each other/sent the reassurance of style and courage/faced every circumstance/with panache

Underwater/in another world/wondering/where I can process air/away from the pollution of hatred/the benign neglect of avoidance/the faltering falsehoods of ritual impotence/under this surface/we breathe free/or so it seems

Waiting/on the stoop/tired of pictures/tired of hair bows/ready to play/ready to go/ready to run and play/waiting/learning the fine art/of patience/on the stoop/on the summer day/waiting

Grateful for love’s inheritance/we cross miles/cross oceans/travel/for the sake of love/surprised we meet/create new holy memories/honor the ancestors in each other’s eyes

Just one precious friend/allows mind and heart/sustaining perceptions/loving acceptance/succor from a long arduous voyage/from entirely different worlds/just one forever friend/finds in you strength/to keep beginning again/in love