Measured Moments

Staying ahead of the darkness

I return to one of the moments

my life is measured by...

laying in the open bed

of your pick-up truck, snug

in sleeping bags, except

for our noses--the scent

of sugar pine refined

by our campfire, its smoke

ascending precipitously

toward jagged silhouettes

of Sierra Nevada peaks

--awaiting

satellite flybys

you explain to me

Russia and the United States

navigate opposite orbits

tonight, both cross

Scorpio's full moon

...not knowing at the time, only

the persistent memory of you

would stay with me.

~photo & text by leh

Bora Bora

The massive Pacific pummels
the mile-out barrier reef
like ancient Polynesian drums
beating an alpha rhythm

on Bora Bora
coconut palms weep
the tepid sea bespeckled
as clouds of perles noir
mask the Southern Cross
jagged bolts of platinum
set alight the vulcan sky

quixotic as the South Seas
clusters of perles creme return
mirrored in the transparent lagoon
while Otuu struts the water's edge
sun ripened Maohi's
wrapped loosely in pareus
their beauty crowned with Tiare Tahiti
sway to the beat of ancestral drums
at the foot of Otemanu
on Bora Bora


~photos & text by leh