"Echoes" - 4/22/11

though I've never seen a real canyon
I've seen some in pictures and
I stood above a copper mine
in a ghost town once, in Arizona

the locals told me not to drink the water
too many chemicals had seeped in after
the mining era came and went

tonight somewhere between Canada
and Manhattan my heart is beating
through my feet helping me remember
how to fly like I when I was a child

I used to pretend there were alligators on the blue carpet
where our family guest-room had two single beds
jumping back and forth from one to the other
with my best friend we'd laugh and scream

alive with sheer terror, imagination and joy
living temporarily in our own world
no one else could see what we could feel
waves crashing beneath such practical furniture

people think distance destroys like poison
but through this dilligent distance I hear echoes
of the future as well as the past and a sense that laughter

is pleading with me to listen to the kisses lifting me up like stars