Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

Monday, February 17, 2014

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

Friday, February 7, 2014

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

Thursday, February 6, 2014

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