21. When Desire Moves

desire moves as a verb, not a noun, consumes like a prairie

wildfire with gold tongues that lick in flames across pasture

it scorches, lays obsidian carpet, creates life in green blades

spikes up through cinder and ash, if desire were gemstones

then emeralds-topaz-rubies, it merges victory and surrender

desire chains, frees, tears down to build up, shifts with the

winds west to east, dangles tart and sugary from the higher

branch, only ripens on the rarest of trees, desire gathers has

acquired whole empires, it is the tip of a spire and longing, the

lover’s dance, it is joy, a shining day, it is ours, and hours,

a knotted string of circumstance, desire leaps, it is an intricate

ballet, it lifts, transports, delivers, blows us back to a time

when life was a field of promise and love was that field on fire

– Donna Wolff

Donna Wolff was born in New Mexico, but has lived in Kansas most of her life. She works at Kansas University Medical Center and is a Trustee Scholar at Park University. Her writing has appeared in The Scenic Route, in the Kansas City Kansas Community College e-Journal, and as part of the Kansas Arts Commission 2010 National Poetry Month To the Stars Writing Contest.