Fun House

Reflection

I don’t give a damn, I don’t

Yes I do, I’m lying to you

I see through a glass

Darkly I see

But don’t you see I need

You to be on your knees

I’ve been too small, forever

To see myself beyond the horizon

Of your shoulders, your brow

I want to believe I can be

Alone in this crowd of hallways

And still be true, to me not you

I can’t be unseen mirror to mirror

My flesh needs its own portrait

More than most but still less

Than the best meant for me

Hold my heart not my heels

I have hammers to wield

Free my hands from this grasp

Thundering gods raise these walls

And we fall step by step one more step

But my fight is my war, my own

I don’t fear what may or may not be

I hurl stones in the sea

I don’t give a damn, I don’t

Yes I do, I’m lying to you

I see through a glass

Darkly I see

14th

Valentine 

With breathless, hopeless hope

I opened up a ribbon wrapped tin

Seeing within my own heart

Coiled in pieces like so many chocolates

You’ve torn open with your teeth

To see what flavor I am inside

Sideways blown even as I stand

Because sometimes it’s words on a page

So the rage doesn’t melt the candle

I hold so tightly in my bare hands

I need the light to burn on and on

Pain doesn’t mean I’m passing

Sing you say, sing me to sleep

But trust me I can’t keep being

The resting place for your destiny

The reason you soft shoe through it all

Hanging diamonds from excuses

A whispered noose my fingertips can’t break

Broken edges of thorny stems and petals

Sharp, twisted metal filling vases

The perfume of rosy death staining my lungs

I let go of these bundles and boxes of satin

Loving myself enough to say that now

I need nothing from you, February love

Everything is Bigger

North

She is mighty

Bought and sold a man’s folly

Wounded and torn frozen in time

Ancient her bones forever carry

Oh, she is mighty

She is mighty

Her hair perfumed with flowers

Mountains and streams are her babies

She sings to them gently

Oh, she is mighty

She is mighty

Wearing white, bride perfect

Dressed up to be plundered

Glittering in her veins

Oh, she is mighty

She is mighty

Holding man under heaven

Her waters ebb and flow forever

Every day a relic newly born

Oh, she is mighty

She is mighty

Golden stars are her freedom

Circling the moments in her orbit

Her history carved by their hands

Oh, she is mighty

She is mighty

Grandeur and splendor revealed

Her backbone unbroken, unyielding

She still keeps a thousand secrets

Oh, she is mighty

Grieving

Upon A Death

restless shards of diamond pain

tears crash unrelenting against the shore

she breathes summer inside honey warm

I linger here lost in this dizzy circle

happy evaporated last night

she left to dance with someone else

rewind second chance once more

the answer is no never again

peace pretends to see me

only to be awakened to nothing

she has wings to take her home

I am tossed grounded to the earth

close my eyes the ocean will hold me

water embracing filling in the spaces

she is able to be what never could be

freedom sweet laughing forever young

Living

Enough

He’s tired lines crayon drawn deep

One arm lifts securing metal clip to button

Blinking against the sun that never stays long enough

He fights the rain, the wind, the night, every day

A deep breath in and again inside he doubts

He is enough

He’s bowed slightly at back and knee

Time ticking is hard and heavy on the flesh

Working is living so life goes on and on with her

There’s much to be done and doing is his job

A deep breath in and again inside he doubts

He is enough

She’s dusty white her hair, her face

Rising up to meet the first kiss of light

Day in day out night in night out with him

Her life is this doing and there is much to be done

A deep breath in and again inside she knows

He is enough

She’s strong in those thinning spaces

Weathering the dysfunction of earth and sky

Some days are silent with nothing spoken

No whisper of skin to unravel the knot

A deep breath in and again inside she knows

He is enough

Pale moons over parchment fields

Cooling the brow of upheaved earth

A pattern knitted in the marrow of bone

Love released in duty and sacrifice

A deep breath in and again inside they know

They are enough

Sunrise to sunset and everything between

The rise and fall of every heavy step

A percussion pressed into the earth forever

A history written of blood and wood and iron

A deep breath in and again inside we know

We are enough

Celebrate

Always

I was wide open in black space and time

Torn apart with words and hands

Whole still for I fight for you always

Kicking and screaming peace in your ear

Downy soft brush of hands on your face

Dance sister, dance daughter, dance mother

Woman dance

I was lifted up in fire blown through with devil’s breath

Stinging life slapping hard against my chest

I stood from bronze to gold you against my back

Ever my blackbird flying from the night

Dove now alight on my diamond embrace

Dance sister, dance daughter, dance mother

Woman dance

I murdered the emptiness crowding choking

Coarse and hollow the voices that followed

Blighting the yellow brick river sown for you always

I scarred my drum beating the way for you

Shaking every tree your bed was made soft

Dance sister, dance daughter, dance mother

Woman dance

I was free in a breeze of giddy delight

My words spoken aloud a trumpet blast

I turned corners sweeping clean the dark

My heartbeat tied to you heaven and earth

I broke chains with my song, my fists unfurled

Dance sister, dance daughter, dance mother

Woman dance

Rare

A Friend

She’s beauty true like autumn leaves

Snowfall held in the earth’s palm

Water running over the smoothest stones, bright with turquoise

Her smile flowers in the darkest corners

Alive with possibility and hope

She speaks well and laughs often, inviting you to join her

Not afraid to play the fool with a dance

With a song in her voice

Her heart is 10 times 10 times bigger than her deepest breath

She quietly fears but bravely faces

Loss has been her peter pan shadow

She’ll hold you just close enough to know you’re safe

But will fight to let you fly

Knuckles bloodied against walls

Joy is born in her words like a healing balm

Her kindness, her wisdom

Her I’ll be here if you fall

They’ll count you as blessed to have met her, to know her

To have laughed with her, cried with her

They’ll count you as lucky

When they consider the four leaf clover you were given in her

Guard it closely behind a secret door

Wear it near the beat of your heart

It is 10 times 10 times bigger than your deepest breath