A Stay More Exotic Than a Treehouse

An underwater nook, arcing

Glass and steel telemetry

A wetsuit about my ankles

But no tank to breathe the sea

I came with a flock of parrots

Where I expected to be alone

To hide and write and miss you

Stranded where the coral blows

Instead feathered cacophany

Around neck and wrists and feet

While the fishes flicker silent

Outside my enclosure, watching me

The weight of blue is astounding

And among the parrots I cannot speak

I sit and wait for this glass arbor

To surface from the deeps

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Image by Julie Dillon

Castle Rabbit

You built a wooden castle

Where pool fell into pool

And the trees clambered into sanctuaries

Where no one could stay for long

I caught a black rabbit in those halls

A baby, nothing more

Than the length of my palm and delicate

Breaths through trembling fur

It had been on the doorstep

Of your haunt of wild cats

Of the hall of hawks and owls

Of your ego left ajar

And when I lost hold I did not wonder

Any longer how to leave

I made doors of your wooden castle

Until the trees lifted me free