Standing in Her Self:
(For Ann Julia, April 2005)

Her smoothness and angles

tune the gross,

the ghostly

and the willful

to things of beauty.

They come as order and disorder,

no less or more than

the distant sounds of traffic,

birds at first light

or simple stories.

Limits fall.

Vision firms.

The world parts before her,

closes behind,

changed in subtle and

not-so-subtle ways

by the intent of her passing.

In the end, only miracles abide,

fleeting or enduring,

for the woman who lives

in herself.