Secret Wishes

Delicate as ice casing snow
held tight
close to beating hearts

far enough away that the heat
won't melt them

close enough that shrapnel will lodge
if they explode

We whisper to them

Tiny lights like distant stars
they glow

Holding us together when
dreams break

Showing us a way we didn't hope for
before

New Year Poem

(For MerriLyn)

We are new beings
born on sparkles that drift down
from stars

We break from what we were
amid the bang of pots and pans
the toasts of cider

we whisper oaths
pledges of change

We wake with the dawn of a year
new and sparkling
beings