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Heather L. Long
Date of Birth: February 27 Location: Studio City, California Email: hlovelong@yahoo.com Website: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/smallreflections Publications: Befriending the Hydra (North Park Publications); di-verse-city 2000, Webstatic, Shadyvale, Poetry Down Under, Poetry Tonight, Mentress Moon Chapbook: Befriending the Hydra from North Park Publications Awards: Winner of the 1999 Angel Ink International Poetry Competition sponsored by Shadyvale Press; Second prize winner in Webstatic.com's semi-annual international poetry competition; Second prize winner in Sonoma Blue Cafe poetry competition; Poet of the Month at Poetry Down Under
ADAGIO
Afternoon glows rose, stains the sterile orchard
where seven crows have paused to blink away the dust.
The image holds -- though I'm not there, but here
where days are long and blue is hard to trust.
Between that sunset hush, and here, where water is so scarce,
we drape ourselves in white and look for wind
to billow us to night, light reduced to fireflies and candles
we can shelter with our hands.
A fever comes at midnight with the dreams, and I hold fast
to rivers pulsing a remembered brush with death;
your palm upon my spine, the tether
meant to bind me here and pencil me with breath.