True North

Admittedly,
I'm haunted still
by the humming of tires against
the asphalt rivers that lead South
and I can tell you firsthand that there's
no silence quite like that drive on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike at midnight-
but I would take the incomparable cacophony
of my squalling thoughts that these
departures inevitably bring,
if each time it lead me
to your doorstep
once more.

---

The mile markers
silently counting the distance
between your heart and mine
were undoubtedly scored on my
bones in a previous life, where we
danced among the Redwoods under the
face of star-freckled skies making
each hello worth enduring the pain
of unwanted goodbyes-
Your love is a crystalline map-way
connecting me with the Source,
a quintessential part of my existence
that I can no longer ignore,
an internal driver installed within me
by a Creator before the anxiety and fears
of my consciousness were born.
You move me the way wheat stalks
dance with the Earth, before cities were
built or either of us birthed, before trees grew
to giants where blue birds could perch, where
inside me you saw true peace to unearth-
The cologne you wear is a petrichor scent,
your arms are the favorite place my time
is spent, and though it seemingly came and went,
and left me wanting more, I swore-
for every inch of soil that lies between
the place I live and that place you dream,
my heart will walk, will run, to be
always and forever yours.

For a compass was hung
on the lowest branch
of the oak that is my soul,
whose needle points to a true North
guiding me to go back home.