Unsung Hero

I'm singing your song
Because the world slept
When you moved mountains.
Because the world blinked
When you brought in the tide.

I'm singing your song
From mountaintops
I'm whispering your song
To waves you brought to shore.

I'm singing your song
To ears that are
Unattuned to the rhythms
Of seismic underactivity.

I'm singing your song
Because it's
Something to sing about.

April 8, 2009

Love Notes

I read your note yesterday.
My cheeks flamed
A smiled tiptoed across my face.

I read your note yesterday.
A thousand butterflies took the skies.
Orange against blue;
Joy against the canvas of me.

I read your note yesterday.
I saw it when you lifted your head,
As I ran to meet you.
I read the lines as your hand
Reached out to clasp mine.

I read your note yesterday.
Can I read your note tomorrow?

February 26, 2009

Dream Catcher

My dreams have taken flight and soared, become free-wheeling gulls hanging on the ever-changing wind currents. For moments at a time they dip, disappear behind some rocky outcroppings on the coast of this murky ocean that threatens to swallow me whole. And I run after them, hands outstretched, fingers grasping, just to catch a few feathers as my dreams fly away, just a few feathers to remind me what it was to hold a dream in the palm of my hand.

I run, stumbling, gasping for breath, the sharp remaining shells of seafish cutting into the soles of my feet. Cutting into my soles, cutting away from my soul.

The ocean on one side, offering oblivion of a dark sort, brooding, morose, but oblivion all the same. The dreams that fly, somersaulting in the air above me. And on the other side? Lies the unknown. So I run for the dreams, I must catch some feathers.

May 5, 2005

Protection

"Were you close?"
I hate the question.
What do you mean?
Implying that I mourn
For a man I never knew.
Yes, we were close -
You have no idea
The words, the love that
Hung in the air
Like many gossamer cobwebs
Unspoken, but reflecting
The sunlight.

"Life is precious"
Yeah, I figured that
Long before you were conscious
Long before you
Dared to think.
You, who did not care for it.
You, who wanted to throw it away.
Don't quote to me
Words that are too big
For your brain
Squeezing out sideways
Through the revolving door
Of your mouth.

Death?
What Death?
What do you mean,
He still stalks the world
Still takes the onesI love?
What right has He?
What right have I?
My love, I cry.
Let my love protect
You and I
From the stalkings
The ominous mutterings
As Death, hears the ticking clock
Of my precious
Closely held
Life.

April 22, 2008

Did you feel the world stop spinning?

I caught a moment today, when time stood still. An instant, when most of the world is asleep, hanging suspended reality, between dawn and moonset. Atlas shrugged and for a moment the world stopped spinning, hanging precariously in the balance between rising and falling. Two opposing lights, the cold distance of the moon and the warm embrace of the sun warred...and for a split moment, I caught it, I saw it...while the world still slept.

February 1, 2007

Sabrina

You don’t see her,

Standing there.

No, there –

See?

Under the lamplight

Bathed in that golden

“American moon.”

I tell you,

She’s there

You don’t see her

But I do.

No, I’m not crazy.

I tell you,

She’s right there.

Her long black hair

Curls so softly over her shoulders.

See? You can’t see her

Her long pink jacket

And her neatly manicured fingers.

Her soft, sad, smile,

Because she knows, you see,

That you don’t see.

For pity’s sake!

See her!

Look at her!

Or miss forever,

Her faint shadow

As she turns and walks

Away.

You didn’t see her.

I tell you, she was there.

What was she like, you ask?

She was the sand

In your hourglass

With all the captured potential

Of each grain.

She was the nestling robin

Shuddering before her first flight.

Crying as she stumbled over the brink

Only to discover the wind beneath her wings.

She was that shimmering

Rainbow.

Untouchable, even on film.

But perfect, evasive, beautiful.

She was all this

And you didn’t see her

Bathed in the light of

An American Moon.

And you will never know

What you missed.

January 19, 2007

Animal Lust

I'm swaying to the music, the beat is my universe, my soul, my existence. The movement starting at my hips, slides up, between my breasts and sinuously curls around my shoulders. On and on and on, my back arches, my feet find the rhythm. My legs are glistening in the brilliant strobe lights and a smile softly curves my lips. At this moment in time, I'm no longer human, but an animal of sheer lust and movement.

January 12, 2007

Let me cry Your tears

Let me cry those tears
That you seek to weep.
Silently, hidden behind
The shining of the moon.

Etching their cliched path
Down my cheeks,
Burning, they travel their
Surest way to hell.

But the moon
Doesn't shine in hell.
Let me cry in dark corners
Let me cry in hidden alleys.
Let me cry in all those places
That hide from light.

I used to cry in the light.
Unafraid of watching eyes.
But crying these tears for you...

I've forgotten how to find it.
I've forgotten how to cry
And not silently hide
Hidden by light.

Could you please bring it back?
The light, I mean?
So that these tears can glisten
Like so many diamonds, upon my cheeks.

I'll cry,
I'll cry for you,
For your tears that you seek
To hide.

I can cry for you,
Just let me cry
In the moonlight
So that my tears may glisten.

July 21, 2006

Everlasting Transition

As though we stand
Between the doors of
Today and Yesterday
On the staircase of Tomorrow;
Tiptoeing warily on
The Breath of Hope.
Everlasting transition,
Standing at the precipice
Balancing on the pinnacle.
Whether, to grow wings:
Launching to unconceived heights
Daring to be burned,
And flaming, fall -
Or to be thrown
Tumbling, chaotic; abandoned
Lying in the
Confined abyss.

As though no other moment
Will equal this - swirling
Swiveling, moving
Back and forth on a chair
Wheeling from one end to another
Only for this moment, caught
Inside a magnified world.
It will not come again
And it's only a moment
The quick snap of the finger,
And the sudden tap of the foot,
And the Everlasting transition
Must become a
Plateau'd decision.

Untitled

My dearest,
My heart’s truest love,
You are gone.
I will keep going,
My heart will keep beating,
My lungs will keep expanding.

I’ve felt your breath on my cheek –
As you lay beside me,
I’ve called your name for dinner,
Scolded you for losing a sock,
Searched the house for lost keys with you,
For the last time.

You and I,
The “us”,
The “we”,
We spent so much time creating
Is still there –
Somwehere.

Even though,
My love,
You’re gone
And I keep going.

March 23, 2005

Shower

…Ooo I can’t wait to get next to you…
The world’s spinning
Comets colliding
The axes tilt
The moon goes black

…Only you can make me feel…
My eyes closed
Buckets,
Gallons
Pour down on me
Desperate,
Searching.

…Oh, you…
I grasp cold, hard ceramic
Gasping for breath
Beneath this flood
I feel another comet collide,
The extraterrestrial shock waves
Flow over me
And I claw for –
At –
Cold hard reason,
For my cold tiles,
…Only you can take me there…

March 6, 2005

Light's On

You left the light on last night.
Forgetting to turn it off
Before you walked out the door
Quietly
So as not to disturb me.
I pretended to be asleep
Pretended I didn’t hear your
Deadened
Footfalls.
Pretended that
The rods and cones of my eyes
Didn’t jump in startlement
At the sudden influx of
Light.

You forgot to turn the light off.
But you walked quietly –
So as not to disturb me.
Walking quietly
But the light’s on.
And you’re gone.
And I’m not to be
Disturbed.

Feb. 13, 2005

Yellow

Yesterday, I was blue, my love, yesterday
But not today
Today I'm dandelion yellow.
The soft yellow of the sunlight,
As it filters through my window.

Today I'm dandelion yellow my love,
You know why love?
It's not because of you.

Yesterday I was blue, my love
Because of you
Now I'm bright airy sunlight.
Not because of you;
Because of me, love.

Dec. 2, 2004

Real Man

I want the real thing,
The real man,
The real deal.
I don't want no myths
No legend,
I want the man
Flesh and blood
Right now,
Right here.

I wanna feel the contours,
Explore the planes,
I want it now,
I want it here.

Not tomorrow,
Not in a minute,
But in this moment,
In this space.
Snap my fingers,
Close my eyes,
Click my heels,
Three times -
Here, Now!

July 15, 2004

Seller of Dreams

I have memories to sell,
Will you buy them?
Memories,
Effervescent,
Intangible as the night air.

Which one would you like?
There’s one,
A child,
Clinging to her mother’s sari.

That will cost you,
Five daydreams,
Painted fire red.
Can’t you see,
The brilliant peacock blue?
Can’t you smell,
The cinnamon that her mother chews?
Can’t you feel,
The texture of the gold thread?
This is worth
Five of your daydreams.

For one memory,
I give you,
You give me,
Five of your dreams.

Sept. 19, 2004