SeanWard.org

Side by side in the planetarium, we
listened to our guide, and I reached
for your hand. Our guide moved us
across the night sky. “This is the
beginning of time (the constellations).
This is now…(the position of the moon).
This is Spring.” The heavens
continuously, predictably
changed. And as beams of light
drew lines between bright dots, and
Cygnus became a swan, you
drew [...]

winter

There is no snow here
though a certain coldness
passion melts away

spring

I do not hear birds
just the song of your presence
turns the dew to mist

summer

the heat of the day
we swim in strong cool currents
then sudden cloudburst

fall

sweet introductions
you give no hesitation
and then you leave us

Something in boys whispers throw,
but don’t just throw, take aim, learn
to do it well. We pick up rocks, throw
until we hit our mark, until our arms
ache, until we learn there is a time and
place where throwing is appropriate.

We grow, become men, linked to the
games, the hunt, often forgetting
trees gleefully ascended with small
gripped hands and [...]

The shower, standing
ovation for the applause
our thighs bred, warm
rivulets, soft soap, stripped
sheets, clothes, memories

of a slower, stronger, beat. I
leave the pillowcases,
unready to wash away
the final hint of
vanilla and musk.

We fished by the lake of my old apartment, where
ducks played a vicious game of strategy, attacking
until drawn away from a nest, another would grab
an egg and sink it with her beak in the green water.

She pulled up two bass, tails flapping, mouths hooked
and dangling from the line. “Let’s eat them,” she said.
When the dull [...]

The Virginia meadow stretches out and rises
in strips of treeshadow, and the bones
of a cherry grasp at passing blue. The last
of its leaves have long since found the least
circuitous route to the ground and melted
into the green grass and passing seasons.

There is always snow in the [...]