Sonnet 717

In lieu of you, I have my heart on fire,

the memory of summer’s sunny song —

our ride through Okanagan roads, your lyre

at rest to be prepared to play along

with poetry in you and me, our flame

dancing us through, out from, our lives eloigned,

duality dissolved in what’s the same:

our voice, the choice to journey on re-joined,

aligned with stars that we once knew as home;

in awe of alchemizing love of all,

our shadow shifted to its shining om,

singing in lakes unearthed like naked fall.

You sing all through my blood, a golden wand

that makes an orchard’s orange fruit of our bond.