Refraction

bending of light as it passes between
materials of different optical density

our collective stories pass

from one generation to another

truth bending, curving

refracting through time

memory of our origin fading

evolving into myriad tales of creation

text by leh; photo by Dixie Lewis

Saturn Opposite Neptune

Saturn's boundaries are Neptune's enemies...

saying nothing because you don't feel safe

holding your breath so you don't hear your heartbeat

not letting him see you cry as he disappears into illusion

just one more look...no, remember your boundaries

Phew, Saturn wipes his brow, that was close!

If only she'd let him in, muses Neptune.

Why? Sooner or later, he'd still break her heart.

Not necessarily my cynical friend, not if she had faith.

You've been eating too many brownies!

Haven't you heard that chocolate is an aphrodisiac?

I give up, sighs Saturn, you're hopeless.

To the contrary, replies Neptune, I am hope.

leh

the damn rain

the damn rain

won't stop

its monotonous drumming

foretelling flood, this year

before winter solstice

above my roof

sounds of cracking branches

send me cowering

as I curse the fickle moon

alone in our bed

I can still hear you breathing

~text & photo by leh

San Francisco Beat

Broadway at Columbus

Chinatown fades into

little Italy, blessed by

Saint Francis of Assisi

omne ignotum

Chianti and Brad

at Ristorante Franchino

photos of young mama and

papa hang on the walls

buon appetito

City Lights, across the alley

Vesuvio Cafe where

50s Beats spouted prose

while pissing in the john

cool man

Ginsberg's Howl banned

Burroughts was Junkie

pre Condor and Carol Doda

Kerouac lived On the Road

the Beat bible

In that flicker between

when The Gate glows sienna

and neon lights Broadway

young poets of North Beach

hear the rhythm of the Beats

leh

unquiet repose

electrical energy triggers

gates in the brain, synapses fire

impinge upon nervous system

grand mal, dis-ease
inflicted by the gods

activates pineal gland

supernova center eye

electric current overwhelms

causing failure in consciousness

mc2 = Energy = liberated matter

information travels faster

than light into the future

kundalini flow of energy

order out of chaos

photo & text by leh

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