At night
When heavens peel back
Heavy eyelids,
I cross yon’ field to
Behind your
Large, empty house.
I peer with winced
Brow through
Knot holes in the pine.
And find you enisled,
Always beautiful
Beyond breath or muse.
A golden star in
Residence there.
Allure that both mends
And mocks me.
If I called out
Would you meet me
In this docile lea
Under moon’s
Jealous eye?
Tall timbers tethered
Land to sky. They swayed
Until great rains
Washed us all away.
Judgement swam up from
Below, a great fish, beset
By sin’s depths. Emancipated
Those we willed to forget.
And I grasped for you
Grasped, and
Sank.
i did not realize that it
was a broken heart
until it was too late
it is impossible to fail at love. love is
not a test or riddle. it is the wind
on warm October days, whistling
through the crunchy tree tops.
there is no way to emend the
cracks in the walls, the missing
soul, the spirit folded in half. there
is a twisting inside when what is
cherished above all others is
gone. an immeasurable span
from longing to love, grief to
peace, scorn to adoration. each
stolen smile from lovers who’ve
lit out, warms with false comfort,
a numbing pill before blades
true pierce the trembling heart.
this is how i saw you. from afar,
flashes of red and gold and green
kaleidoscope beams danced with the
wisps in your long, curled hair. and
sunshine erupted in my soul. magma
thick and red, shimmered across
these new blisters within me. i knew,
in my knower, that’d i’d never again
be the same. never watch the sun
break into morning without the sting
of you. and to never again know the
peace of the sun setting in the
orange bed of dusk, hoping that
you, would by chance, witness
his ember nightcap too.
in the holy still
of dawn,
besieged on
all sides
by the misty
girth of
morning -
she is waiting
for me
across the field
of my good
intentions.
waiting to
appear in the
propitious rays
of golden
morn. no longer
a wraith of
finely muddled
dreams, but
flesh and sun
and sweet
Spring breezes,
reborn into
daybreak, she
glows of
dew laden
honeysuckle
blooms, pregnant
with nectar.
pinched and
pulled my
open mouth
brings home
her essence.
candy raindrops
set aside, just
for me.
there is a deep and sullen wave
pining for me. curled up beneath
depths unfathomable, the
torpid moving ripple is creeping
her way westward for shallower seas,
until she curls, crests, and crashes against
my sand buried toes – retreats
and is never seen again.
i have seen the end of time.
’twas in the twilight of late
May. the sleepyhead sun
had dipped his head beneath
the canopy of cherry, oak, elm
and his latent countenance waited.
tiny snippets of sky that peeked
through the humdrum horde of trunks
and branches suddenly erupted in
dazzling streaks of light. the westward
horizon burst into flames, as if the
cirrus clouds were alive and burning.
all grew quiet as the sun sank beneath
the purview and drug his exquisite pyre
into the depths of night with him.
i sat there as eventide slowly swallowed
me up. gently the wispy tones of katydids
lay a sweet bed of repose for me
as i slid facilely down into her belly.
rolling over these winding
green paths, traveling
through Appalachia is as
if the world has rolled
onto her back, hoping
that we will rub her
soft, furry belly.
There are steel strings
In my soul
Fingers pull and bend
The tones of my heart
You strum me
In moon
Shadows
And touch
Vibrato.
It was in the Spring when
Westward winds called
Me back. I had cast my
Bread upon the waters,
And those waters drifted
Homeward.
Would it have changed if I’d swam harder?
How long would you have lived with
Such a struggle as mine?
When I left you
Standing there that morning,
Surely I escaped
The snare of the fowler.
But in losing you
I died still.
My love, always.
Last spring as affection defied reason,
We set to building a love of our
Own. With nervous, trembling lips we
Arrived and began wrapping our love
Into a tiny cocoon. It wiggled and
Squirmed in it’s precious infancy.
And we waited. We nurtured it. We
Protected it. We cuddled it. Inside it’s
Resilient skin we made love against
A backdrop of lives we no longer
Recognized. We shared secrets and
Stories against the pillows of
Deceit and laughed each time our
Love lurched inside. Leaves left and
Came again and like all worms, lovely
Cocoons broke open all around us. The world
Was alive with the buzz of newborn delight. And
As ours stretched her beautiful wings wide,
Like all Monarchs, she flew far, far away.
the days are melting away,
each little grain falling carelessly
through the bulbs of my hourglass
once top heavy, i now feel
securely rooted to the bottom
half of my life, and you,
were a beam of sunlight sent
across my heart just in the
nick of time. when i dream,
the tenebrous clouds overhead
have retreated en masse. the
air is calmed and resplendent
colors infuse this world we have
created. there is only you. my
succulent shadow of golden light.
over glowing green fields of the
Civil Wars i hear the dim melody
echoing from our past…
no i don’t love you, but i always will.
oh, i don’t love you, but i always will.
i always will. i always will. i always will.
today, your radiant eyes have
melted into the blue sky above,
always watching, and i see you
every time i look up.
notes:
lyrics by: the civil wars, poison and wine
here is the video….
the heavy night pulled
his sticky body off the
belly of this dewy spent Earth.
he tipped his cap and faded
into the ember hues of
a mid-Spring morning.
i found myself aroused at
just the thought of you and
all that you bring to daybreak.
i yearn to touch your hot browned skin
dripping like sap as it oozes from
freshly bored maple trunks.
and like a bug trapped in your flow,
i surrender to the cascades of
nectar that weep when i arrive.
these wounds i will not salve nor
should i try to shore up your levees
when the waters crest above their lips,
rather, i will give way to the richness
of you, and wiggle only when your web
is finished beneath me, certain that i
become utterly tangled up in you…
every goodbye
whether big or small
right or wrong
happy or sad
leaves a hole.
often times we try,
with varied success,
to fill the holes in us.
but i will leave this hole empty.
so that i always feel something.
