“There was, buried deep inside the stories of old,
an old tale revisited that told
of the leopard and of the antelope.
The people of this place said dream was a ride
inside their journey they would gaze
eyes closed wide fluid liquid open blind
stare of the storm
so blue it would gobble you down whole,
in gesture
digest you in jest
bit by bit in bite.
In exchange of tickets and fates
allow you to ride
if you wished
and the time was ripe
yellow light spots of luna
prowl mounted
moonlit on the leopard
black night
That is how the tale of the leopard
and of the antelope goes.
And then of course
there is the rest
the pace of verse the impression
slight imprint spur of antelope like bird
on a prowl of her own
in a quest of flight in different nature
akin to air in travel bird
chameleon, dandelion, a fighter,
this creature leaps at chance
for invitation to the ride
landscapes in journey they traveled
galloped territories across rivers dirt roads
trans-versed named forests un-named brooks,
inside the clearances inside the woods.
Flooded roads surrounding ascending waters from the rains. Bare passages.
Bridges built across dams near overflowing - memories of other spaces, territories revisited from above. Red dirt and water.
Daylight filtered in a sparing moment or light not at all.
A moonlit space.
In spiral dance down swirls
escape and joy
they rode across the traveling fields
to dream like life.
They traveled,
this leopard and this antelope.
What the readers nor the riders know
was that a leopard of another spotted color would attack and jump.
An antelope of another feathered kind would leap in flight.
But so the story goes that this leopard and this antelope were old
made out of air and dirt and fire,
old stuff, old soul,
fused elemental tales of necessary childhoods in both,
fused tales of some future,
elemental synthesis.
Except in dream or for a fault of mine in fate or in time,
these two, these people said, will never meet,
this leopard and this antelope
except in dream, they said, where they love each other,
as fiercely as they can,
given their leopard and antelope within and without
their natural and not so natural skins.
Take a ticket to ride, a destination,
take a ticket, they said, these people
and just go,
just ride the dream.
better still know,
the dream is you,
you are the ride.”
August 4, 1999 – 2006 - 2010
