If I could fly with light,
if I could follow the stars' web of power,
one eternity behind another,
and witness drama with no conclusion,
I'd only glimpse the radiance God
shared with me through you.
I have envied your brilliant simplicity,
wisdom drained of arrogance,
as I've scurried through life's maze
spinning the questions you easily answer.
Perhaps it was our common goal of truth
that made me say, here at last, is my sister,
or perhaps it was my unchained spirit,
ranting, singing,
unafraid of its reflection
because I saw it through your eyes
in those days when we lived on conversation
till I believed I was speaking with your mouth,
when ideas wore the halos of Renaissance saints
and we crowned each other's enlightenment like
Byzantine icons.
That day you made me ride that horse,
leave my purse and my makeup and
my inhibitions in the car
and trust that creature with no sense of style,
my heart called out, dear Lord! So this is
what angels and birds take for granted,
so this is the world outside myself!
I could have ridden under countless shades
of sky till the sea corralled me,
my born-again hair spraying from my head,
my heart rioting in its prison of ribs . . .
I never thanked you for that day.
I never thanked you for inviting me
into your freedom,
for teaching me about art and horses and
the splendor of ordinary things
and that wealth is something we create with
our souls and that knowledge can be gentle
and that friendship is water, one day living
in a body, another in the sky, but living always.