Beyond the Sky

Sometimes what you need is a day of sobriety

With a view of wild oats, yellow as popcorn,

Whose kernels opened and dropped seed

In the first heat wave way back when 

You were instructed to help, somehow –

It was more of a tug than a command.

Remember when imagination became responsibility?

When your life became linear: forward or back,

Never a behind, between or a beyond, as in

Beyond the grain, the grapes; beyond the olive trees,

The live oaks eaten by deep green up

To the top five feet, a crown of sinking sun and

Beyond to the hill of oaks still inside day, but not far behind

The shadow trail. Beyond the hill, the sky,

Beyond the sky-