Two Poems

The History of Longing

On a clear day from the deck
you can make out on the horizon
the lip of the ocean
and in the foreground
a spray of wildflowers and the fence
leading to the field where horses graze.
But what I love most is the moisture
of the sea in the air, the salt you can taste
on a child's skin if you were to kiss it
and from one of the bedrooms
if you happened to wake up in the early dawn
out of fear you remember from childhood
and thought long since gone -
before you understood that love
was immortal -
...