Ode to Rosa

A birthday poem for my friend Rosa Lewis

Mountain goat of the Joshua Tree rocks,

a wild Rosa, the cosmic information superhighway

Everything that could be held onto got destroyed,

left only with her devotion to love and truth

Earth, air, water, fire?

she's impossible to pin down

Always growing

(but trying less hard is good too)

Competent without neurotic

brilliant without showy

loving without precious

Uniquely positioned to do the things that can't be done for her —

attune,

see you in your fullness,

and find where your heart longs to go

Our golden-haired lioness,

though really, she's nobody's