Meltemi Winds

Winds, like me, wander and wend.
Winds have flavors sailors taste.
And tones! Winds
have more distinctive musics
than a multilingual mouth can make.
In the Aegean Sea,
strong dry summer winds
blowing from the north
can sometimes last
for days without a break.
Ferocious in the afternoon,
Meltemis, toward evening,
lie down and purr a kitten breeze.

My own life currents
run electric in the early day
and by night, wind down
to hardly having pulse.
I like
the tender zephyr quietude
of night.
Of solo life.

But when a gust of love
roars once more,
a Meltemi gale that shipwrecks all my restful plans,
I beg no reprieve.
Meltemis, dangerous to sailors,
rise up in the midst
of clearest weather.
When they fling me flying,
I laugh, and cry,
and offer gratitude for passion.

I befriend each local wind.
Its singular sound,
I welcome;
its taste, its texture on my face.
I praise it
with the wind
that wanders and wends
and sings its voice
through me.

©Susa Silvermarie 2020