My mother grows delphinium, foxglove, zinnia,

plucks the dew laden morning.

With a storm of petals, she anoints my waking

in a chaos of tenderness.

 

My father shows me winter’s stark branches,

its naked sky,

washes my eyes

in the deep blue of dusk.

 

Fullness, woven by light,

intoxicated by color, reels with scent,

drinks

the fury of  the withering sun,

flowers into fruit.

 

Emptiness, without beginning

or end, borne on existence

sings silence in the wind.

 

In the archway of the seasons,

the sun’s radiant symphony exploding,

still and silent

I grip with my toes the precipice

that is time.

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Dale Walkonen was an adjunct professor at Concordia College, Sacred Heart University and the College of New Rochelle. She is also a painter, mime, playwright, and environmentalist. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA) and Boston University (MA). Her work has appeared in Slab, Eclipse, The Chaffin Journal, Primavera, and The Christian Science Monitor. Her chapbook, Journey, was a semifinalist in the 2008 Black River Chapbook Competition. Her full length play, Mayday! Mayday! received critical acclaim.