Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

My Belongings

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

These are the things which belong to me:

A spider suspended in a cobweb
That lies in the corner of my room
Waiting each day to greet me
When I come home with a silent hello.

A fake flower in a waterless vase
With a single counterfeit dew drop
Balancing on the end of a synthetic leaf
Like a tear drop that will never fall.

A painting of a woman half finished
Hanging over my bed at night
My guardian angel watching over my dreams
The dream like visage of who I might be.

A horseshoe above my doorway
That hangs upside down
The luck has all fallen out
Of its open face.

A crumbled up piece of paper
With the semblance of words
Written and re-written
Only to be crossed out.

A picture of myself with friends
Who have gone yet still remain
Faces that have so very changed
Yet I still feel the same.

A piñata’s head from years ago
Emptied of candy and color
Once prized and cherished
Now looked at as trash.

A picture of a woman
Who does not know me
But I feel I know her
From another past life.

These things that I call mine
Don’t belong to me at all
They own me like their coveted doll
Just an object, a thing.

Yet still, these are the things which I call my own.

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The Bridge

Friday, January 21st, 2011

You stand on one side of a bridge
The other cannot be seen
Hidden behind a veil of fog
Stretching on indefinitely
As you place your hand on the railing
You feel the pull of ghosts at your shirttails
The whispers in your ears
The fog’s fingers gently wrapping around you
Caressing your face pulling you step by step
Onto the bridge that will take you away

You feel consumed by the fog
As it wraps you in its loving arms
Like a mother and her child
You feel safe, you feel the calm
That you never felt before
As you are pulled step by step
Away from the world you once knew
You welcome it, accept it
As your new home

You feel another pull
as you reach the middle of the bridge
A sadness nipping at your heels
Like a child grasping onto her fathers legs
As he walks away forever out the door
A heaviness that not even the fog can lift
Pulls you back to the edge of a world you have almost forgotten
You look back over your shoulder
A sorrow only known in this world
Mirrors in your eyes

The fog pulls you forward
Those you loved pull you back
You are lost in the middle
Of two very different worlds
Pulled by the sweet numbing of pain
On one side and on the other
Pulled by the sweet feel of pain
To remind you that you are alive

There is no going back
Once you cross the bridge
There is only silence
Only a choice to make
To leave those you loved behind
Or take the chance
To live again
In a world that might not be so sweet
But to feel pain means
That your heart is still beating

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Posted in Photos, Poetry |

Poppy Tears

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Even flowers cry sometimes
What do they have to cry about?
They are so pretty

But they won’t stay pretty for long
And it isn’t about being pretty
It is about loosing life
Where did they loose it?
I laughed softly
Resting my hand on her shoulder
I don’t know
Maybe they left it under their bed
And forgot it was there
I did that once
She said with a sad sigh
I know I said smiling
Maybe they lost it
In the playground
Hidden under a sandy Everest
I think I get it
The flowers have lost their petals
And that is why they are sad

Exactly and they cry for each others loss
Then why doesn’t it make me sad?
Different things make different people sad
I say with a frown
Watching the poppy’s tears
Roll down its face
You will understand when you are older
But I want to understand now!
I know, I say with a smile
I know as I guide her away
To happier things
To flowers with open faces
Smiling at the sun
But she will never forget
The crying flower
Knowing that every flower she sees
Will cry someday
For what it lost in the sandbox
Or under the bed
We all loose something in the end

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Within Reach

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

A woman stands on the side of the road
Not on the side walk but not quite in the street
Standing on the gutter’s front step
She is motionless as cars streak past in a blur
They do not stop for her, they don’t even see her
As she stands on the edge of their awareness
But very much in the middle of her own mind
She watches the cars as they past
You can see her lips move but they make no noise
Maybe she is asking them to slow down
Maybe she is asking them to speed up
Or maybe she is asking for a prayer
To save her soul for what she is about to do

She closes her eyes and takes a step away from the side walk
One step closer to the street
One step farther away from the world she once knew
Then another and another and still the cars don’t stop
She can no longer hear them
Just feel them as their tires reverberate on the blacktop
Like the hum of a hummingbird only inches from her ears
She will not stop for them she has someone she must meet
She is dancing with death, her feet flat on the ground
Still she keeps moving as the cars get closer and closer
As she moves farther and farther away from the curb
Until she is in the middle of the road

She turns and faces traffic and opens her eyes
To a bright light encompassing her
For a single moment she can feel God
She opens her arms to embrace it with a soft smile
As the car slams on its brakes and stops
Only inches from her face
She heaves a heavy sign not of fear but relief
She lowers her arms slowly with a little smile on her face
Then turns away and begins to walk the other direction
Continuing her crusade across black top
With the remembrance of the lights
That had so recently filled her mind
She held that little moment deep within her heart

A moment where she and death almost touched hands
She had seen him stretching out his long bony fingers
To graze against her face, cool and smooth
Only to be pulled away at the last moment
It was also a moment
Where she stood within arms reach of God
Close enough to brush her fingers against his outstretched palm
Both stood on one side of the street
Separated by cars, by busy people
Unaware of whom they were in the presence of
She held both their hands for a moment
And walked away unscathed but with a new smile
That held death and god on each corner
As she walked away from that road
From one side walk to another
She had met death and god
And walked away from both

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Snowy Egret (Frostbite)

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

A snowy egret flies
On paper thin wings
Like a paper airplane
Gliding through the air
Keeping airborne
For as long as it can
Until its fragile wings
Bow under the weight
Of heavy air
Into the ground
Where no paper airplanes soar
Here the snow
Belongs to the land
Not the bird in the sky
No longer fragile and beautiful
But the paper-thin feel
Of cold seeping
Into your hollow bones
The delicate dance
Of frostbite on the fingertips
Of ballerina dancers
The slow decay of the biting snow
And the old heaviness weighing down
The lightest breeze
The wings of an egret
Laden with the burden
Of the world without sky
Chained to the ground
Waist deep in snow
Where a creature with wings
Does not belong
Yet cannot escape from
The paper wings beat
To leave behind this place
Heavy
With the absence of all
Freedom lies in the air
Where the snow belongs
To a graceful bird
Not the world lying below
Where frostbite is left behind
In the warm sun’s glow

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Dead Man’s Light

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

I don’t think I like it but it is an interesting example of short poetry…. which I don’t do plus a picture. Sorry not a lot to post tonight, can you tell 🙂

Shadows retreat
As dawn creeps closer.
The sun claws its way from darkness
Like a dead man from his grave
Chasing away the shadows
Leaving this lighted day.
No more living in darkness
The last thing the dead men say.

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Posted in Photos, Poetry |

Wolf Child (Crossroads)

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

They say you found me
At a crossroads unmarked
But a split all the same
The child born for a civilized world
And the daughter raised by wolves

They say I was savage
I did not know I had hands
Only teeth to get my way
I fought for all I wanted
Even if it meant fighting you

They say I had hair like tendrils
A mass of wild tree branches
Tangled in my curls
Untamed by mans hands
But still gentle under yours

They say I had eyes like emeralds
That shone with a feral gleam
The wolves hungry stare
Haunting your every step
Could always find you in the dark

They say I had lips red and bright
Like blood newly spilt
Lips that curled like burning paper
Smiling with a knowing smirk
That could only belong to the wild

They say I had skin like ivory
Desired yet cold and hard
The prize that wasn’t what it seemed
So full of life yet unliving
An ivory statue for a child

They say you should have left me there
For nature to dispose of
That I belonged to the wild
And not a house to come home to
To leave me there at the crossroads

The wolves taught me to survive
But you taught me to love
The wild taught me to be cold
But you taught me there was more to life
Than the fight for life I always lived

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Words Within

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Can you see me between the lines of this poem
Peaking out behind the imposing columns
Of the words that I have created
Yet which are slowly uncreating me.

Can you find me in the contours of every word
Molding my body to shape of the letters
That makes up my very essence, my very soul
They are my children that have one by one left me.

Can you search for me when I am lost in this forest of words
When they consume me and leave me for dead
Will you be there waiting to help pick up the ruin of who I have become
Or will I be left alone with the whispers of the words begging to be born.

Can you distinguish the person who I used to be
From the creature that the words have made into me
I am afraid of the darkness that hides within the words
Lurking in the shadows of every line I write. It is watching me.

Can you read the words imprinted on my heart
That left burning scores tattooed in my skin
As I tore the words from my body
And lay them down as a sacrifice to you.

Can you understand the agony I have suffered
From you merciless gods who pick at these words
That are pieces of my being and lay them to ruinous waste
Leaving me in tatters only to rise again to create.

Can you believe me when I say this is my purpose
This is the reason I live and breath
The words that I breathe life into
Breathe life back into me.

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Winter’s Embrace

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

I am tired now let me sleep
The little girl says in a voice scarred
By winters claws in her throat
Not yet, not quite yet
Our feet drag in the snow
Her little hand held loosely in my own
If I can not feel my own hand
How am I supposed to keep track of hers
I feel her hands slipping frequently
From within my grasp
To hang limp by her sides
They drag her down
She is so little
So fragile I have to take care of her
But even as I think this
I feel my eyelids dragging too
We are dying
And I know this
I wonder if she knows too

We keep moving
One foot in front of the other
Trudging through this desolations
To a destination unknown
I have no answers for her
Just empty reassurance
That soon the answer will come
Who knows maybe a flaming chariot
Will come from the sky
In a flourish of warmth
That will thaw our tired bones
Or not.
Nevertheless we keep moving

She falls to her knees beside me
I barely notice in my own fogginess
I am going to take a nap
She says in a voice now more than a whisper
That echoes in my ears like a scream
No.
I say forcing my way through the snow
To reach down and rouse her
She has curled up in the snow
Like a kitten next to a warm fire
There seems no difference
She looks so peaceful as she closes her eyes
I shake her, yell at her
Tell her she can’t die
I have to protect her
Keep her safe and alive
But she is gone now
Curl up in Winter’s embrace
Leaving me in this winter wasteland
Alone.
So devastatingly alone

I kneel in the snow
Unable to move
Not willing to die
But not strong enough to live
Where does that leave me
I pet her soft hair
And say goodbye
I have to continue on
Alone if must be
So I left her behind
She belonged to the winter
Not mine any more
I screamed in silence
Because there was no one left to hear
This desolation this utter fear
It was the first time I had felt anything
Since this terrible winter of silence began
And it was the last feeling I ever had
As Winter pulled me in
And left me hollow and cold inside
I died with her
Long ago in the snow
Yet here I am still moving
But who am I now?

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Posted in Poetry |

Rogue

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

She leans into the mirror
Closer and closer
Until they are almost one
She purses her lips
As she slowly opens
A tube of bright red lipstick
She watches with reverence
And a humble respect
The monolith of red
Emerge like a sword
From its sheath
On the tube it says rogue
Like the rebel has become
As she brushes it across her lips
Soft as a feather
Like a paintbrush
Stringing out a line of calligraphy
On the most pure of white paper
She stays for a moment
As she always does
Looking her reflection in the eye
Her eyes burn like emeralds
A fire of ambition
With pursed red lips
And the smallest of smiles
She is ready to conquer
To never loose control
Of her life ever again
Now she is ready to face the world
With her lips bathed in red
The face of a new woman
The only traces of the old
Are exposed like roses
On the petals of her lips
The blood of the disposed of
Her old dead self
The self who used to look in the mirror
To hollow eyes
And bruises on her face
No longer is it her own blood
That lingers on her lips
But the bright red paint
Of everything she has overcome
They ask her why she does it
But they can’t understand
How far she tries to bury
The woman she once was
The weak one who was beaten
In her place stands a warrior
Fierce and strong
The trophies of her battles
Laid down layer by layer
On her lips
The blood of those she has defeated
And the blood she has spilt herself
She is the rogue
With the warriors seal
Painted on her lips
She faces each day
Knowing that finally she can defeat it

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