Sometimes

sometimes there's a word on the tip of your tongue
heavy and dark and full of promise
stuttering there, trembling, waiting to fall, to be spoken.
sometimes the word is a name, so soft
filled with edges and consonants and gentle vowels
sometimes the word is just a word
simple, delicate, a rose on the edge of the world
about to fall, gravity reaching its slender fingers skyward
to grip and grasp and pull it down
sometimes the word is a vow
a trembling thing, so small, so frail, so weak
but let the seed grow and it will give you pause
and a reason to wake up, in a world of a heartless many
sometimes the word is just a thought
and an endless, formless, sightless terror
nameless and feared, and there will never be enough of us
of the compassionate few, to slay the dragon
sometimes the word is an idea
hiding in plain sight, behind a Guy Fawkes mask
with the endless determination of a madman
sometimes the word has no meaning, because it's been said too often
by the wrong mouths shaping the wrong voices
but...
sometimes the word is said
and the rose falls, to shatter on the pavement, and let the shards fall
and pierce a scream of a name
to chase away the terrors
and make a vow.


(c) 2013

God

Don’t try and guess my methods

Leave them lie and let them be

Just raise your hands and pray to me

Call my name; let it ring among the stars

My grace is in the breath of a world,

Insignificant among worlds

Tiny; just a speck of dust of the map of the sky

Raise your hands and pray to me

Say my name, scream it loud

Beg for mercy, love, a burial shroud

But fear me not – great is my love

Greater than the heat of suns

But like the universe itself, it will fade

Wake in the wonder of the worlds, but remember

I cannot grant you wishes

Nor create where there was emptiness

For I am not god

Nor am I God.

(c) 2014

Dystopia

cops walk the streets with electric weapons
looking for trouble
guilt measured by the color of skin
closed circuit cameras hidden on walls watch
but the eyes and the mouth are disjointed
the woman in the alley receives no help

the human is treated as a machine
sometimes it seems, it's illegal to breathe
running for a train, to catch a bus, a hairpin on a plane
suspicious
laughing too loud or walking alone
deadly

drowning in dystopia
like water, it's all around you
blink and you'll see it
have another pill, you'll forget you saw
if you dissent, you'll regret it
as the IV unit drips chemicals into your blood
remaking, reforming, changing
opinions kill in this wounded world

wear a mask, show a face, don't let them see
the freedom to feel and think; gone
if you transgress the norms and laws
all you have will be gone

the myriad complexities of human morality
the right of an identity
deleted.



(c) 2014

Countdown

strangers at the gate
counting down,
5, 4, 3, 2,
one more day, one more night
one day there will be nothing left
naught. nil. zero.
knock, knock, knock
good day, goodbye
tomorrow, hello
red dawn, red sky
5, 4, 3,
too many people, rushing around
welcome home
5, 4,
three more days till it's all
done and gone
done and gone
done and gone
return the silence, pacem,
let there be peace
5,
for us all to breathe
let it go, let it stay
let the rain wash it all away
screaming
it's too late, too early
five minutes left
the fire is raging past its limits
let it all, all go
let it all go away
close your eyes, don't worry
stop the tide, inhale
5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
sleep.



(c) 2014

Colors

you ask me, what do colors taste like?
i reply, like the times of day, but sweeter

Blue tastes like sugar before you fall asleep

Orange tastes like cinnamon bread,
and waking up late

White tastes like candied violets and catching,
the bus in the morning
heading to school,
with your breath misting

Green tastes like honey and,
the first time you find a blooming crocus
nestled in the grass

Yellow tastes like chocolates at five a.m.,
when the clouds are just
blushing pink

Black tastes like hot tea before bedtime,
silky and sweet and steaming

Red tastes like rose petals,
and caramel while you watch the stars
on the hill behind your house

Purple tastes like spun sugar,
spider webs,
dusted with nutmeg
in the hour after dawn

Pink is like a deep breath
of vanilla
by the fire
at midnight

Gray tastes like cigarettes in the cold,
under a streetlamp in a big city,
fanning smoke tracing patterns in the air
like white pencil and black paper
haunting

then there are colors like Verdigris, Orchid, Wisteria...
Burgundy, Olive, Warm Black, which is really
just a different sort of blue
they taste like rust and cherries
like blood and music

the color of unbleached silk
gentle, pale coral
tasting of pure and crystalline water
flowing from somewhere
arriving at a place, unknown

delicate yellows and a thousand shades of pink
colored from tumbleweed to turkish rose
restless, gentle
taste like the first mists of autumn
and silence.




(c) 2014

I never

i never want to see another child
with a mark of hate on their face
with fear in their eyes
with a scream on their lips
and a hatred of themselves
a thought in their minds that they deserve it all

i never want to see another woman
with scars on her heart and soul
battered, bleeding, alone
unable to scream from the damage done
by a man, or men, in the dark or the light
by her father or her brother
by society, by the world
by her lover or her husband
by the mother who sat on her hands
and never stopped the harm

i never want to see another teen
with scars on their arms, legs, body
from a razor blade in the bathroom
brought on by the desire
for their inner pain to be released

i never want to see another person
mocked for who they love or the color of their skin
or how they dress
what gender they have come to understand they are
what foods they do not eat
what they read, watch, or do for fun
who they sleep with

i never want to hear another person say
that a woman is nothing
that a girl is a slut for saying yes
or a prude for saying no
that a boy is queer
because he cried
or gay because he hugged his friend
because he loves someone

i never want to hear another excuse
that we have freedom of speech
that they are different
that she shouldn't have done it
that she was asking for it
that he was just being a man
that boys will be boys
that they are guilty because they're not white

i am sickened by humanity
by the cruelty
by the hate
by the refusal to accept what is different
by the assumption that they are lying
by the death, by the simple inherent evil
by the excuses

take a look at history
glance through the pages that detail time
and tell me that things have been fixed
for a woman, for a person with dark skin
for anyone who is not
a straight, white,
man.



(c) 2013

The Way

the way you blink, slowly
the way you laugh, at me, at yourself
the way we can understand each other, from a glance
you showed me how to laugh when i was sad,
weeping wounds on my side,
you took the knife away,
said, you're okay.

the way you move, gently, graceful
the way you kiss, sweetly,
the way you light me up, afire, ablaze
you gave me a new outlook,
opened my eyes, wiped the tears away,
kissed me better,
now i really am okay.




(c) 2013

Snow

falls down, pretty, white
settles in your hair, featherlike
melts into tiny pinpricks, droplets
on your skin, glimmering
in the half light, you're shining

how many angels on the head of a pin
how many snowflakes will collect on your skin
let me breathe you in
let me breathe you in

snowy silence closing in, breathless, cold
moonlight glowing vright as day,
wind-tossed handfuls, laughing, playful
tiny footprints in the snow, mine, yours,
side by side.


(c) 2013

Frozen

there, far down, below the stars
given form, breath of cold
frozen hard and feather soft
brittle, broken with a sigh

rime on buds and petals
flowers burst to life on window panes
threads to weave a starry coat
glimmer in a candle's flame

scatter diamonds through the leaves
brush them with a finger, melt
touch them with a beam, light, glow
throbbing, tiny, stars on earth

shimmer, shimmer, ice and storm
fare thee well, cold, frozen stars
wake the sun
watch them fade



(c) 2013

Violation

it's not the chains that bind
not the dark as it envelops
not the screams behind the prison walls
nor the singing in the church

it's not the ever-present movement
of time and tide and lives
not the creaking of the stairs
not the shaking of your head
not the no, frozen on your lips
not the blood on the floor

it's not the finality of days
when night comes, and the dark presses in
not a violation of peace
not a thread of hope
not a dream

it's not the cries of the young
when revelation pours in
not the desolation
not the cruelty
not the lack of humanity

it's just a condition, a clause if you will
all that is done, done again
undone, unraveled, unpicked
left alive, left broken
it's the curse of mankind
it's inevitable


(c) 2013

The Wanderer

these times are running on
sadly spoken by a thousand tongues
have you lost your sense of time,
down there in the darkness?

summertime is come and gone
down by the banks
there's nothing to be done
there's a boundary
i know your soul was kissed away

don't tell me it's all done
the dawn is broken
everyone's gone
you're my savior

pawns on a lightless board,
travel on, travel, on,
hope to change with the tide
the ocean's dry

my religion got kissed away
i can't wait for the next time
you're real to me



(c) 2012

Veritas

in vino veritas
said the monk to the king
offered a goblet of dark red drink

in vino veritas
sang the spinster to her love
and sipped her last of the world above

in vino veritas
sighed the robber's bride
and breathed in slowly of the pale white in the barrel


(c) 2013

Suicide

the night
the night's hold softens,
the delicate curve of a blade
glimmering in the twilight,
sharpened steel - tiny dagger
hammer stroke and anvil
hot as a furnace, cooler than kiln
stroking light, the finger of a lover
separates gently, skin from skin

the day
the day warms sundered flesh
the seeping wounds of nighttime
blessed by the evening dewy cold,
scabbed over, still bleeding...
sluggish now,
life on concrete, spilling out
pouring over, blades and words
cutting deeper, deeper
sever life from bone


(c) 2013