the potential of life

I believe when I close my eyes I leave my body

I’m inside wind blown eucalyptus rustling drapers of bark strips

I believe yesterday creates today

because what I saw that night when Redwood Giants Varsity Football

ran onto Brentwood’s  lighted heritage stadium

my son became a man

I believe my love of three husbands created

what I understand about hard won dignity

Saturday’s hope forges memories when it was good

most of the bubbles float up to surface and pop

paper narcissus bulbs take root and blossom before New Year’s day

I believe Ginsberg’s Molak sought truthful San Francisco rooftops for his drunken friends

breathing life back from

double-paned windows of that psychiatric building

where his mother, Naomi couldn’t recognize her son

there’s a howl

I believe my chihuahua smiles at me when I tuck him under my arm

once in awhile I’m  grateful I can still walk

and my old phone number has a new ring to it

I was young with my second husband and we fished

off  St. John’s Island in Alaska’s Gulf

drawing a sixteen horsepower engine through green water