THE ANGEL NEBULA

Peace flows like a river
That runs away from me
When I close my tired eyes
No colors do I see

The wind came down so hard last night
The color dropped away
It opened up an ancient wound
And stole my breath away

On the day that you were born
The sky lit up in purple
I named you for the angel cloud
After the Pillars of Creation

I close my eyes under the sun
I've run so long, I'm breathless
Static crackles on my skin
My body is electric

When spring returns, new colors come
Brought back by the rain
The daffodils bend toward the sun
The violets come awake

But beauty comes in many forms
And sometimes it is gray
In the tangled strands of dark and light
In sticky, tarry space

On the other side of gray
There are indigos and purples
Like a dream, they pull me deep
I crawl down through a tunnel

I come up where the earth is warm
My body feels electric
The blood is coarsing through my veins
Crackling with static

The maple trees, still bare of leaves
Release their winter sugar
Lilies push up from the mud
And wake the frogs and turtles

They froze beneath the icy lake
When all the world grew still
The sun returns them back to life
An ancient wound is healed

Nothing here is black and white
In all things, there is gray
Nothing here is permanent
And peace, it runs away

I find it in the winter ice
In sticky, tarry space
It's in the color of your eyes
When the sun has pulled away

On the day that you were born
The sky lit up in purple
Glittering with cosmic dust
And flowing like a river.