I Want You

This poem appears in my book, Blown into Now: Poems for a Journey, and was first published by DRUNK MONKEYS 

How Alex Spoke to Wild Earth

when midnight cold
lies on the shoulder of your land
and I can’t sleep.
Trees drop snow on my tongue.
All is black.

when the break of dawn
sears the rim of sky.
Minarets of chimney rock
toss shadow down,
down into nothing.

when my cheek and sweat
cool against your marbled cliff.
A band of quartz
runs beneath my body,
and colors the scarp and jag. 

when I kneel in beating sun
and trail sand.
There is no sound.
There is no scent
but mint and pennyroyal.

when light breaks water
on a ruffle of wind.
Below, in green mud,
a lattice flickers,
lit like cut glass. 

when humans call to me
with stories and marvels,
and I must leave.
But I’ll find you
in quiet or wild.

I want you most
when my days end,
and those who love me
bring my bone dust back.
They throw me from a mountaintop
beneath a covey of stars,
and from there, we’ll travel on.