A dance in a dream
We have become
Perhaps our baby wings
Are out for reconditioning
I’ve heard of it
They come back goldenly refit
We’ll need them when the party’s done
For now we’ll twirl on ballerina toes
If we spin fast enough
We’ll get a rise
A little floating lift
And we can pirouette around the town
And through the days
And wear a glittery haze
An ephemeral winged crown
For in our feet we hold the memory
Of how it feels to fly
And in our arms 
We hold our remnant feathers tenderly
And practice leaping at the sky

Sara Mathews     January 2022

Artwork ~ Jennifer Mujezinovic

When I was a child
I could fly
It’s long ago now
Sometimes in a dream
I’ll know of it
The way it felt
To lift away from roads
Of trouble
A little effort at the first
Ungraceful like a goose
But once I felt my feet
Depart
Accomplishing a bit of air
Beneath my measly bones
Of wing
Then suddenly I was expert
At my flight
Untethered and untired
I could soar the sky
Not ever in the clouds
But more a treetop skimming fly
To stay connected to the grounded
Hearts I knew
And never would I leave
Except for proving
That I could
But now with age to weight me
All the lessons I’ve accrued
I’ve lost the stamina to separate
From earth
Perhaps until the time I should
But in the furthest recess
Of my childhood mind
I try 
To sift the memory out
To dust it from the moths
Of years
And hope to then reclaim 
What growing old
And growing up 
Forgot

Sara Mathews     January 2022

Artwork ~ Duy Huynh 

https://www.duyhuynh.com

What leads me out
On a night like this
Bleak it seems
By the indoor light
But the darkness calls
I step along like I hold her hand
As around my shoulders
She settles down
A velvet cloak 
Of soft midnight
And the moon swims up
In an orange hood 
And the branches hold her high
And the mist rolls in
From all four woods  
And the night winds moan
And the night wings fly
As we traipse along
By a single star
That pricks it’s way through
A quilted sky
And the clouds throw veils
Across the moon
In a ghostly ship they sail
And the world spins round
And whirls us in
To an orchestra
Of the darkness sounds
And I lay my head 
On my moonlit friend
And the lamp indoors
Lights an empty bed

Sara Mathews     October 2021

I am the moon
And she is me
I push my face into the sky
I taste the salt of tides
I hear the owl
She hears me too
Whoo are you
I am a creature of the night
Like you
These dark ships of cloud I ride
And scuttle like the leaves that fly
Fly higher
Whisk me round a curl of wind
To dance a spectral tune
And settle me back down
Beneath that mother tree
Again 
That reaches to the moon
And I will sleep
Upon her autumn quilt
And I will dream 
In yellow red
And gold 

Sara Mathews     October 2021

I wait for you
In the quiet of the evening
When the trees grow solemn
And the breezes cease
Just at that moment 
Between late
And early
An interlude so peaceful
You can feel the turn 
Of afternoon
An exhale of day tide
An inhale of sweet soft night
Just now the birds lull 
To anticipated silence
And watch to the West
This breath of complete stillness
An earthly offering
A ritual 
And as dusk descends
Sifting round the edges
Of another chapter closed 
Together
With hushed tree
Expectant sky
Bowing blossom 
And gentle bird
I wait for you

Sara Mathews     October 2021

There is no color to describe
This sky
This river of the same
Shake the world 
Upend this scene
Which way can only tell
By where they flow
And only then 
By whence you came
The Eagle soars
Not caring for the sunning snake
Who shares my riverbank
Does he dream like me
The coldest winter long
To wait for days like these
This is where we all begin 
Sift the sand and find the broken bits
The washed up ends 
Curing here like bones
I wouldn’t mind I think
My bones to join them here one day
Beside the basking snake
Below the mighty Eagle’s 
Glittering eye
Great Heron’s wing to shelter me
The river scrolls it’s way
Ever and anon
Eddying cloud and sun
Meandering some
A journey never fully made

Sara Mathews     September 2021

 

The night is soft spoken
Satin like a sigh
Erasure edged
Blurred defining lines
Of what is here and now
And what was then and you
The evening somehow brings you back
It’s been so many nights
Just why this one
With all the curtains drawn
And air so light as it is heavy 
You know those skies
That settle in and keep you
Weighted to the gloom
Yet feathery too 
Caressing thoughts and teasing
Apparitions from the wings
If you can leave that feeling
You have a stronger will than mine
I am a captive to these clouds
Of memories
I sit here all night through
And wait for what it is
You’ve still to say
The mists of pewter prowl
Around the trees
Obscure the lawns
The streets
Encroaching ever closer
And now in silver breaths
And whispery goodbyes
They cover me

Sara Mathews     October 2021