-Salt Lake City-

Forgive this intrusion but I confess 

that having survived the strains 
in the fabric of mad adulthood, 

have had through the years,
warm thoughts of our lives—

the sum of our swift-lived days and why,

with mysteries before us now we sometimes run   

from our sweetest dreams.

Once sewn of fire, once reaped of fire,

with stars of fire our burning companions—– 

we came to the kettle who formed liquid water,

we came to water, then moved as quickly, 
out from water.

Now this journey paints
the plane of sky its blood of stars,

whose restless behavior cast us once
across the reaching 
flame of its burning veil.

As we drown  

we welcome ghosts—

         

once formed at the kettle, once born of the water, 
once lost to the fire of a crashing car in Salt 

Lake City.

     

                                     Two deaths in Utah, 1968
                                    The girls of Colorado 17. Denver / Boulder

                                    Fall River, 2007