Sunday, November 13, 2022

Outburst

like mud flung 
from pools formed
with flood's flash 

she's hurled 
against you 

things pass

like bentonite
she draws in

her apologetic
ritual evidenced

a caked splatter stain
on your ruined trousers





Sunday, August 14, 2022

Nocturnal

my heart plunges ahead into hours that will be, uncertain of its place
moving through rooms
made foreign
devoid of light

time and place
rush within the walls of me
as rapid as this pulse
autonomous, wild above the trees the waning moon glows faintly

she's also the introvert
pulling at the deepest crevices
of Vishuddha and Anahata

from the woods
coyotes howl and bark
as if I woke them

Monday, June 20, 2022

Poppies

poppies
nod to
brave
morning

tangerine
crepe unfurls
tissue-
paper thin, 
trusting light

exposed
their inner
selves sway

ecstatic
beneath 
warm 
brilliance 

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Levitating

your hands float above me;
magician with velvet cloth

your intentions strings
that levitate me
with a polar force

suspended, not bound, 
i hang with bliss

senseless to all 
save the sensation 
of heavy floating want

You are Beloved

you are beloved
admired from 
a distance and
closer than you know 

to some one 
you are the 
laughter of bliss
lit from heart center 
a dream, remembered

your lover wears 
another face 

all's been said, 
translated on 
on raised fibers 
of braille letters
caressed on 
leathered paper

you are 
some one's 
familiar

love 

Paperwhite You


Forced to push 
through tangled
tender roots. 

How hard 
your bloom 
in winter's 
bleakness.

Your fair skin 
luminescent beneath
December's wise moon.
She knows death,
and all we lose. 

You share secrets.
She whispers to you 
on the longest night.

Your blood courses, 
aligned with her
inevitable trip.

Behind sad eyes,
I see rebirth with 
each month's pass.

You cannot love sun
without her sister, 
but they will 
never force you. 

You'll grow more 
beautiful as all
of you blooms.

Hallelujah

I am a glorious
round sweet pea

on your tongue
you roll me

savor, taste
the meat of me

honor the succulent
earth in me 

see me for
the pea I be 

Sunday, December 05, 2021

To the One Who Wasn't

within, there

nesting in the 
shallot shaped 
bulb of beginning 

you joined me

created in 
violence, 
I denied you
 
your soul
had a better 
place to begin 

no safety, 
no way to be 
all that you should 

this lineage
of trauma 
mine to stop 

and what
I'd never 
give you 


Thursday, September 23, 2021

As Memory Would Have It

was 
she 
ever 

sweet
tongued

soul full
beloved 

her shy 
secret 

lids 
kissed 

words 
inadequate 

for the 
sighted 

lines of 
herness  

somatic 
cues

echoes
like necklaces 

tangled 



Friday, August 06, 2021

Fly Casting

the current seam
words that lure  

the strongest swimmer 
couldn't fight it

a perfected delivery 
nets so many 

of all those 
caught and released

I recognize the cast, still


Saturday, March 27, 2021

For Now

she saves 
words 

her weakness
for impermanence

tenuous 

fragile as 
morning webs 


Rope

some 
days

throat 
constricts 

tied to 
the vile 
burden 

of cell 
memory 

masses 
circle jerk 
to a fallacy 

a spiritual 
non-crisis 

her life - 
irrelevant

the few 
empathize

their 
compassion 

eats rope 
like fire 


Sunday, February 28, 2021

Paying Attention

My mother asks questions 
she doesn't want answers for 

are you still writing 
what are they doing 
when did that happen 

I finally learned, having spent
a lifetime listening to them

it's not recent behavior 

Her questions a prompt 
for me to ask about her 

Her short, sad answers 
laden with the pull of 
a boat, untethered

rope wrapped 
around my ankles, 
pulling me from shore 

I've learned to stand 
higher up the shore, 
away from the 
last tide's debris 

strewn in the 
damp sand 
between us