| Douglas Ordunio |
| Valerie |
Equine she was
Willowy
Blonde mane
A smile a permanent feature
Perhaps in fantasy she sported a tail
Buffeted in a wind at full gallop
Pacific Valerie
She belonged to another
But no matter
Frequent bottles of white wine
Occasional dinners alone
A pleasure to bask in her unbridled spirit
A fanatic of polo
Which she termed “war on horseback”
Owned a horse
Would ride near the ocean breeze
A phantasmagorical union of Woman and Pegasus
One late afternoon
Waited for a table in Malibu
Sat with her back to a wall of weathered wood
Chatting quietly
Our imaginations engaged
Souls inexplicably met
Enmeshed
We were momentary lovers
Our bodies embracing
On a distant planet far from Earth
Our spirits communed in a universe of other heavenly bodies
Fleetingly thoughts of Jill and Jenice
In rapid succession
Now a third visitation
Magnified importance
Searched for the meaning
Valerie a bookend to this sacred collection
Jill the other
Jenice the sacred bond
After a few years
Valerie had vanished into ether
Consumed by Hodgkin’s Disease
Latter days drifted in a wheelchair
Mine the unwitting duty—the bearer of news of her death
To her lover
Though her mother gave thanks to me
For giving Valerie the site of her final resting place
When we visited a cemetery
The top of a sun-drenched hill
An unmarked spot
Where she can prance in eternal dressage
Willowy
Blonde mane
A smile a permanent feature
Perhaps in fantasy she sported a tail
Buffeted in a wind at full gallop
Pacific Valerie
She belonged to another
But no matter
Frequent bottles of white wine
Occasional dinners alone
A pleasure to bask in her unbridled spirit
A fanatic of polo
Which she termed “war on horseback”
Owned a horse
Would ride near the ocean breeze
A phantasmagorical union of Woman and Pegasus
One late afternoon
Waited for a table in Malibu
Sat with her back to a wall of weathered wood
Chatting quietly
Our imaginations engaged
Souls inexplicably met
Enmeshed
We were momentary lovers
Our bodies embracing
On a distant planet far from Earth
Our spirits communed in a universe of other heavenly bodies
Fleetingly thoughts of Jill and Jenice
In rapid succession
Now a third visitation
Magnified importance
Searched for the meaning
Valerie a bookend to this sacred collection
Jill the other
Jenice the sacred bond
After a few years
Valerie had vanished into ether
Consumed by Hodgkin’s Disease
Latter days drifted in a wheelchair
Mine the unwitting duty—the bearer of news of her death
To her lover
Though her mother gave thanks to me
For giving Valerie the site of her final resting place
When we visited a cemetery
The top of a sun-drenched hill
An unmarked spot
Where she can prance in eternal dressage
