Poetry

My mind is full of egret eyes. Swiveling movement like the weight At the end of a fishing line, Pulling the hook serrated and sharp Into the darkest parts of the sea That only fish with grey translucent eyes Can see with something more than sight That illuminates the darkest parts of this world. I feel disturbed like the jellied eye Of a fish left too long in the sun; Poked by innocent hands seeking fun. My mind is pierced by shrieks of delight As children run away, cringing in fright; A game played by children in a twilight too dark To be anything else but night. ...

I always cry when I read poetry. Oh, you must read very sad poems then. No, I just forget to blink or maybe I am afraid- In case a word slips away like a ship into the sunset That can never be returned if lost at sea, Or a love note burned so that it will never be seen. You see poetry is elusive, And we must keep a wary eye upon it at all times. This watchful gaze cannot be pried from the page- Just in case a word tries to escape, Like a fox willing to bite off its foot for freedom You see, I am diligent in my reading, like a hunter in wait. ...

Picking apart the pieces of a pinecone Digging with fingertips sore from the pain From the sharp edges of a hardened core The consistent pulling apart to pry open The heavy wooden doors of the heart Individually plucking the pieces like the strings of a harp Angels screaming when the pluck turns to a pull Like a sharp withdrawal of breath That doesn’t belong in your lungs This poison of decay Not the decay of fall Like the slowly drifting leaves that cascade From heights unattainable by man That can only be felt by the swift sigh of the wind Between your grasping fingertips Like the grasping fingers of your love That slips away because you weren’t strong enough To hold on to them as they begged with teary eyes Looking up at you from the great descent And you let them go, knowing you couldn’t bear the weight Of both of you and the love that was creating a canopy Over your heads and compressing your hearts And lungs until even the soft scent of fall could not revive you On this cold winter day As the last of the fall leaves are being swept away down the stream Where you once cast little paper boats Wondering as you held hands where they would land Hoping for fantasy but knowing even as your fingers unwove That they would end caught in the dam of nature Of things never quite meant to be But it wasn’t enough to make you say no Even as you plucked the ribs of a pinecone Asking whether she loved you or not Like petals of a daisy that have atrophied and petrified Just as the bitterness of the question has cemented in your heart Like a cancer hardening you from the inside out Until you are as purely petrified As the dissected limbs of lumber left for dead Each band stands out, creating a carousel of time But the Braille of years gone by has become illegible Leaving you to remember the lost sound of symphonies Music notes echoing into starless nights Caught in cashmere skies cascading with rain Where only the earthy smell of Petrichor remains And the scattered scales of the barren pinecone Left in the fall foliage like spent shells of artillery Even these bullets cannot stop the pain in you As you abandon the stripped pinecone And begin to pull apart the sharp edges of yourself To find the hardened core within Hollow it out until it is empty And start over again

Windy, cloudy, stormy days always remind me of this poem. It is an older one but I thought I would repost it today just because I always think of this poem on a day like today. The woman walks Along in a crowded street Surrounded by people Yet so alone A scarf like a noose Wrapped around her frail neck Hands shoved deep Into her pockets She only looks At the ground The rhythmic step of her feet Her wide hat Shields her from the world She ignores them Is afraid of them She wraps herself tighter In what is safe and comforting And is content in isolation So she walks along In a crowd of people Without faces The wind picks up For a moment it whispers A soft secret in her ear A riddle told to fast As the wind Carried her hat away The woman let out A short little gasp As her barrier was removed She reached forward Fingertips grazing it Just out of reach As it bounces and rolls Along the dirty street She chases in vain And no one will help Finally out of breath And out of heart She gives up Standing in the crowd Puffs of winter breath Clouding before her as she watches Her hat dance away Her hair billowing about her Watching with sad longing eyes She stands still among thousands As she turns to leave A tap on her shoulder She turns in surprise A man stands before her Her hat in hand Holding it out towards her A smile but no words She takes it and offers A shy little smile in return As she starts to pull it Back into place He reaches out to stop her Why He asks her You have such a pretty face He smiles and lets go Giving an impartial shrug You don’t need to hide You are beautiful you know He leaves her with His few soft words And a knowing smile She stands there Hat in hand Filled with his offerings Her eyes are wide And her hands slightly quake She lifts the hat Looking at it now And tosses it away She watches it Flit and dance in the sky Gone forever She smiles slightly The stranger’s knowing smile She doesn’t need it anymore

A Red Bellied sparrow thrashes Desperation clawing against the clear glass Of a crimson window frame Feathers soft turned brittle with fear Push and push with no result Fighting a one sided battle With an immovable object And a mind that cannot comprehend That this battle cannot And will not Be won Red bellied sparrow with heaving chest Throw yourself against the window No more Cradle of mercy Cup the wilted head of the defeated Carry it gently Feeling with curious fingers the fluttering Heart beat of an animal trapped A being consumed by fear and confusion Nestled close against your chest Feel the fear from a cage Cast by the crimson shade of light Of an escape masked with unseen bars Carry it gently Out into a light untainted with crimson Where, extended into space The cradle parts Setting the red bellied sparrow free ...

I looked out the window My chin resting on my open palm The glass fogged As I peered out Cars filled with people Some lonely, some afraid, some dead inside Some looking for life, and some giving up on it Trees blending into one another Black top, yellow lines Black top, yellow lines I pulled up my sleeve And wipe away the clouds Forming on my window I watch more cars pass by In a hurry to reach nowhere Each face in the car Blank as they stare forward Eyes only on the destination Not the beauty on the way A car pulls along side us Silver and low to the ground A mom talking on the phone But in the back Sat a little girl She was looking out of her window Right at me For a moment I just stared back It felt like an eternity That our eyes were latched together In that instant I knew her I knew her whole life And I am sure she knew mine She was the daughter ignored She made her own world Because the one she had Had no place for her in it I could see her parents in her eyes Arguing, yelling She heard it all through thin walls And cried herself to sleep at night She was the odd man out Always the child in the back seat She didn’t need them Or their fickle love She had all she needed But not all she wanted She made her own way Through a treacherous life And always would I raised my hand And waved to her I smiled and nodded slightly And she did the same And our cars moved on Our worlds separated Just a moment That our worlds touched I wonder what she saw in my life What she thought Of a stranger through a car window I just sat back and smiled My mom looked over at me and smiled back “What are you smiling at?” “Nothing” I reply Because no one could understand How I understood So I keep her world a secret Locked tightly away Of a daughter ignored And a world passing by

Hands shaking as fingernails bite Into the palms of his hands Clenched into tight fists Trying to suffocate his rage Choking on words which burn In his throat like poison This bile in the belly of a monster Belongs not to a demon but a man With eyes that burn with anger Smoldering like embers in dark sockets Even as their fire dwindles Into the soft glow of feigned comfort They have the power to burn Power to set the world on fire But here and now His rage has no place Except in the quiver of his fist And the monstrosity of his eyes He lets out a long forced breath Letting his body go slack And his eyes slowly drift closed Wraps a controlled arm around His little girl’s shoulders Which shake with quiet little sobs Bringing her in close To shelter her from the world That took the light from his eyes Wrung out his heart until all that was left Was this bitterness, this rage This monster That even as this wrath builds in his chest He pushes it back down Forcing a gentle, unnatural smile on to his face Holding his daughter as she cries Turning his hollowed out chest Where his heart should have been Into a cove of resounding calm To harbor her heart and make sure That hers, unlike his, would survive The cold abrasive storm As he held her tight in his arms Looking ahead with dead determined eyes She would survive Even if that meant what was left of him died He slowly unclenched his fist Which had gathered in rage Opening it out of love To wipe the tears from her face And with a calm and controlled voice Hinted with the melancholy Of humanity’s cacophony He whispered in her ear Everything is going to be all right

This is not the way I thought it would be The light at the end of the tunnel Is not as bright as the stories said It is barely visible from the Unreal City The path is dusty and the doors lie On rusted hinges swaying in the wind The wind funnels down this dark corridor Screaming through the cracks under the doors Breathing life into those who are stuck behind its bars Who didn’t or couldn’t quite make it there Trapped with iron grips on cold prison walls Clinging with the fervor of rage Embittered to the roots of their soul Screaming back at the wind With tortured shrieks of terrors unknown As the breeze whispers into their ears Taunting melodies of the songs sung At the end, behind that backlit door That will remain just faints murmurs Of a world hidden from them By the darks gates of the city they built around them As they watch with sunken and darkened eyes From the prisons that they sealed themselves in Watching the slow progression of shadows Drawn like moths to the light That seems to grow dimmer at every passing moment Monsters pace in these dark rooms Consuming the light at every moment that door is opened Leaving no light for those who need it To guide their passage down this dark corridor The way is lost but we find ourselves not in a dark wood But a desolate earth Where the monsters roam not behind closed doors But in the light for all to see The light is gone and we must find the way back There is no Virgil here, no Beatrice to lend a hand Just the blind hands that reach out for light Not knowing what it looks like or how it feels We are lost, I am lost Listening to the screams in the wind Trying to sift out the song that may not be for me But is so close I can taste it The door is left unlocked And this unreal city is not home to me I promise This dust will not be all that is left of me

Weathered hands patiently adjust clothing that hangs looser everyday as time slowly wears away the very flesh of life Whittling away with an ever persistent knife That has had its blade at us since the beginning molding us from this shapeless lump of clay into something beautiful only to continue cutting away past the point of beauty into the world of obsession and tradition where we cut not because we must but just because we know nothing else. ...

Laughter is strung out between souls Souls that will never touch or see one another But still feel the tug and pull Of the string between two cans That vibrates as words crawl from one to another Spanning the space between those who cannot see But still believe Like whispered secrets sent from window to window By children without bed times or nightlights to guide them They cling to that string and use it to weave a life With or without finding the end of that thread The thread that pulls and strains As time places the weight of distance On the iron shoulders of eternity Strumming the string of vitality Feeling the shiver before the break The untwining of the thread Right before it unravels That last grasping second as time slows Before there is the Break Can you hear the laughter drifting away On the ends of a broken string It echoes out and fades Never to reach the end of that line That was strung too tight But never tight enough to hold the other Anchored at the end Where two souls would become one Like a violin strung too tight The wires scream and grind until The breaking point And the twang of a string destroyed by the twisting of time The loss of sound with a deafening silence Brought about by the abundance of sound At the end of an unraveling thread That carried so many secrets So many laughs on sunny days The sounds of a soul crying for the other Will never find their way Left alone now in the world Knowing no one is on the other end of that string No one to listen or care Just the silence Suspended on the wind Until it is picked up again