O! The Embrace!

sprinkled in sweet songs
and the defiant calls of loud living
in sidewalks cracks filled with long green stalks
spelling out the subtle strengths that have
covered these landscapes for ages

in the soft snooze that comes with
familiar entanglements
under hand stitched blankets
with tv fuzz filling the air
spinning in two wheels with wind swept hair

this pours out of sleepy coffee cups
you make me in the morning
stirred in the chili pot that always has
room for seconds

it’s the shoulder in the night
dancing in the dark
howls
that sing magic into
breaths of life
that keep hope in these veins
and a thirst to keep going