My love!

i have held you so long

these nights in my dreams

insisting all things are possible

determined to manifest 

however thick the night nothing envelops the skyline

and days then months tick by

drawing from the opacity of our options 

imagining

running to, consuming you 

ravenous

legs like tentacles

pulling, hands linked

into my bed

for an endless, melted exhale

my spine softening against your breath

between my shoulder blades

and gently filling

my body

quite literally

with everything I want

spectacularly,

i cut a green path without

and about you

in which my outstretched fingers and tired bones

unrequited

do not wither from drought

or retreat from unwelcome sneers

but rather volunteer

unguarded, independent

perhaps even look for trouble

beg for downpours that stun the skin and flush the toxins

trust that light follows eventually

it is not obedient 

no schoolgirl hope for signed permission slips

or awkward fumblings

a crocus, crowned
rightness assured

where once was desolation

awake in a miracle
knowing love that renders time irrelevant

succor wraps my ankles in green

and the stars are crystalline

from here

you 

have chosen low risk investment

in a life less controversial

perhaps intentionally

where there are no true guest rooms 

or multidimensional experiences

for us pursue in disco colors

no sun-dappled trails to lope down, arms linked 

glances which speak paragraphs

to share anymore

i stake my claim

a traveler in this renewal of purpose

licensed, registered

to grasp another with such intent and honor

where my feet find the sand

near the wood stove, curtains thrown back to reveal dawn

listening for the crackle of air escaping cut cedar

if no longer hopeful you’ll burst in with an overflowing suitcase

and collapse into my arms weary, relieved, 

hungry for only the way i cook

longing for only the way i talk

lifted by only the way i move through the world

desperate to belong to me

and our eyes meet like polar ends

educating future generations on how it’s done to love furiously

and with ribboned joy

so happily knotted years later one cannot find the ends

or know where we began

it is
permanent, regardless,

still and forever mine.


My love was created as a spoken poem, but is to me like a traveling vine that blooms brilliantly at the end of the piece. Someday this will be a choreographed piece, or perhaps a painting.

Amy Cray
It’s So Easy

It’s so easy to be happy

When your life belongs only to you

The depths to which I regularly dive

The fiber I spin with an eye toward an ancient wooden loom; I know women used to know these tools inherently, and trusted them by sturdy feel alone

The books I have plundered, family histories in small towns I would to call my own

If given the chance

Fields I slash and burn knowing generations of topsoil are lost and carbon release is irrevocable

To do over

In order to insist nonchalance, righteous fortitude

As though you’re not the magnetic pole reversal of my lifetime

If your question is would you

Could you

The answer is still yes

I defy my own defense strategy because liberation from what keeps you is what matters

And nothing is forever and wild rocket grows

Practically anywhere

Amy Cray
You

You

Sweet thing

Fingers brushed across trembling lips

As a kind of hush

Or an invitation

Silver chain dangling between bodies reunited

If only temporarily

Neck outstretched

Hips forward

Because you belong to me

The way my childhood home hugs the landscape

Dusted with purple lilac and grape vines

Sweet thing

Pour over a full glass

Lift the dam and let everyone downstream resolve in their own way

Open palms

Shudder

I would give you my breath

If you asked

Amy Cray