"Cold Roses" On the Road

for Jill

April finally warmly arisen
as trees begin to bud--
I sit comfortably at my computer
in an old Grateful Dead t-shirt
My company--the steam
emanating from coffee cup,
enveloped in that dark womb of distortion
of Ryan Adams'
If I Am a Stranger
As needle caresses vinyl

(flip to side two, record two)

Now the first harmonica strains
of Dance All Night
As I remember driving over
deserts and plains
from Wisconsin
to Colorado
(Red Rocks with Phil Lesh & Ryan),
then on down through the
Sierra Nevada to the Bay
All the way
listening to
those dark-blue
revelations
of Cold Roses,
wondering "how do you keep love alive?"
and what would become of me,
caught out alone
in the vastness of the world
like the last child standing
after a game of musical chairs,
Not knowing that that wild road
stretching like the dry skin
of a snake over the mountains
of the west
would lead me directly to
your warmth,
like an April morning,
That our eyes would first embrace
one another from across the room
the day after my western adventures had ended,
That as I drove on, Ryan Adams was pleading with me
not to give up on that elusive gift called love,
He was leading me to you,
That as I passed those sun-drenched miles
on the plains,
I could feel the well open
and rain-clouds swell
over Nebraska
And desert beds
begin to fill
that long road home
that lead me to this morning
of sunlight & lovemaking
to Magnolia Mountain
running like a stream
through lives
entwined

spontaneous poem of Spring love-joy, April 12, 2004. Thanks, Ryan--for getting me through to her!