Dust in the Wind, Poetry of a Time

By Cal Cumin

A thoughtful remembrance of intense love from long ago by a middle-aged man who is still in love; the pain and joy are clear on each page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cal Cumin
• Release date: Apr 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9780998778822

Book preview

Bull Mountain Lady

I wish I had met you when

your husband parked you in

those purgatory hills

without a car or telephone, and

you explored alone the boundaries

of your life’s silences and the

failure of your dreams.

In my mind

I can see you walking the sandstone hills

or sitting in the sun on some overlook—

cutoffs and T-shirt and long tanned legs

dreaming of what you had hoped for and

wondering where the turn was missed.

Waving at the occasional low-flying plane or

hiding along the county road

just to see a person drive by

like some lonely, beautiful animal

seeking basic human contact.

Are those hills where your patience now comes from—

your ability to still endure the man who left you there?

Does the God you worry so much about now comfort you

or is it just Christianity’s collective guilt

keeping you from peace.

I’m glad we shared our dreams for a time

and that no one else met you there

when you were vulnerable.

How else could I have come to love

so much

a girl with the Bull Mountains in her eyes.

Away

I see you there

and then I see you not. But I

caress whoever she is

as she walks by

oblivious of your image transposed.

Long straight hair like yours

same small stature

almost perfect.

But the face lacks the beauty

you have molded in your forty years.

She goes on by and

I miss you freshly all over again.

I hope our world hasn’t changed

since I’ve been gone these long days.

I need to feel your face in my neck,

see your anxious eyes seeking my thoughts,

feel the soft perfection of your lips,

hear your voice say,

I’ve missed you so much.

I have.

Fallow Ground

All the discourse this word processor

has produced