THIRTEEN STEPS OF YOU

You watch your life shimmering
in blue logs
as your other brother
stokes the swimming sweatlodge
embers.

You stand naked
in a frigid stream
waiting for love to gather
enough steam to cleanse
your frayed around the edges life.

You shudder awake In Texas,
in the middle of a night
as another river rises from it’s broken bed
crawling up the thirteen steps
to occupy your empty bedroom.

You loved her before this blizzard
of rain and ashen dust, before the snow,
before, while sleepwalking through your life
you crossed an accidental bridge
into her.