Speak Low

Hear me out.
Just listen.
I have something to say
Now I've finally found my voice.
There are no words
but in layman's terms
I'm in love with you so bad.

(Nameless)

Friend without friendship
With nothing but hot yearnings
Beneifts don't outweigh loss

Villanelle

How do you feel about your plight?
More than a mother to a broken son
by keeping him in your failing sight.

You feel destiny's bitter bite
When the realities weigh a ton
And his disabilities hold on tight.

And he holds one with all his might,
Your charge, your burden, your son.
Try to break free without a fight.

So you stay up late into the night
Until your work is never done
And yet you still rise with first light.

But where do you draw your delight
When the battle is all but won?
Isn't some happiness still your right?

Yet you don't give up the fight
Until your maternal chore is done.
On the horizon is a light
Move forward, but stay in sight.

Sestina for the Girl in a Blue Dress

There is a quiet sunset on the lake,
where serenely is a girl
in a pale blue, flowing dress
fanned out against the dock,
with polka dots like tears.
She watches the sun go behind the trees.

Her home lays beyond those trees,
A white house across lake
beautiful enough to bring tears
to anyone who knows this girl
or sees her on the dock
wearing her pale blue dress.

A pleasant gift, that dress,
that still smells of evergreen trees,
found lonely on the dock
with its owner in the lake.
Unclothed and unfaltering, the girl
swims in the lake of her tears.

Let no one see your tears
her mother said, fixing her dress.
Woman now, not merely a girl
who scrapes her knees climbing trees.
So she cries into the lake
at sunset, sitting on the dock.

Today, near that old dock,
She shamelessly sheds her tears
while swimming in the lake
without disrepute or her dress,
protected from others by the trees
Embracing who she was as a girl.

She doesn't act like a girl;
now basking in the fading sun on the dock
staring up at the overhanging trees.
Washed clean of tears
and of her formal dress,
Here in her happy place on the lake.

Who can know her eyes have tears
unless they see her on the dock
crying and hiding her feelings in the lake?

Luminary

Who wishes on stars anymore?
Children, I say.
But I do, too. When I look up
and the night is clear
I wish to be far-flung from city's
Glow in your eyes:
A childish nightlight.
The stars are distant, sure.
Distant but real, I'm reassured.
Is there ground for those stars?
They float without direction
Save for their own gravity-pull.
I see a star.
I make my wish.
Is that a shooting star or satellite?

I Love Deeper than Pink and Red

I love deeper than pink and red
I love in oranges, greens and blues
I break away from the color code
And think of romance in new hues

I love with more than just my heart
I love with shoulders, knees and hands
I break away from loving one piece
And think of love the body understands

I love more fragrant than a rose
I love in mint, grass and sweat
I break away from the passion scent
And think of a smell I can't forget

I love brighter than your jewels
I love in darkness, twilight and sun
I break away from material things
And think of two that keeps as one

I love in flavors that aren't sweet
I love in bitterness, salt and sour
I break away from the chocolate box
And think of a love I can devour

I love for longer than a day
I love in January, September and May
I break away from the time control
And think of everyday as a love-holiday

Milestone

I was innocent
but I've reached that point

Like a child that waited
Ten years old dreaming
of a sweet sixteen
The birthday came
Still the same person
that I was five minutes
Before.


I was innocent
but I never was pure

A simple question of honesty
now that I can't go back
So I'll go forward
And take with me
what I can carry
Until I reach my end
and a new day
Begins.


I was innocent
but...

Ice thaws
Iron rusts
Mountains crumble
And earths collide

I was innocent
but nothing ever lasts forever.

Grandpa

You sleep in your warm climate
Battle wounds have earned you these;
A little slice of home
on an alligator swamp.
The children visit when they can.
They come from a cold place
you haven't seen in years.
Change to you is moving mountains
but you've lived in many lands;
Waving good-bye to Little Boy,
holding out in bomb shelters.
Freedom from Depression
yet the horrors of the war
your grandchildren see everyday
raised by the black box of flashing lights.
These atomic babies don't grow
in your nuclear families
and the things that you have fought for
are not bedtime stories.
Still there are stories to tell,
but they look at you with haggard eyes
"Respect you elders" falls on dead ears.
Technology's offspring
that share your genes and blood
but they have misplaced your memoirs.
Who said history is written
by the winners of wars?
Or maybe all is lost.

Stupid Girl

Wait for love, she said
It will come, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

He is here, she said
I don't fear, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

It's all right, he said
Stay the night, he said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

It feels right, she said
I'll hold tight, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

Sure there's pain, she said
But there's gain, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

I love you, she said
Love you too, he said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

Good-bye, he said
But why, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

Now he's gone, she said
I was wrong, she said
Stupid girl, we said, silly child

Evensong

On a beach of shell and stone, to clean soiled body with salted foam
And at the ocean's saline touch I find an eager yet reluctant home.
Alas, the sea repels the touch of flesh and coasts away from land
The water, as well, resists the shore and pushes beyond sand

O farewell, my sea. Farewell to thee.
I shall miss the words you held to me;
Your hushing whisper in the night,
your clean waters and caps of white.

And yet the Sun, she warms the face, the waves of longing failed to subdue
My eyes go wayward from biddable sight to bare the ocean in her view
And thinking, now, as I did then about the water's green delight
I wish to hug the liquid's edge and dive into my love tonight

O farewell, my land. Farewell to you.
I restore the love I stole from you.
Your leafy limbs and live embrace,
Your worshipped earth of soil and grace.

I swim out with the tide, undulating en masse, as if the sea would seethe,
but cannot give all to the heightening tide as long as I still breathe.
The depths encircle my body's frame, and cuddle my closing lung
In fading light and numbing water, my evensong is sung

O farewell, my life. Farewell to all.
My love will catch me as I fall.
And as my rosy heart dies cold
In water's love, I shall unfold.

If Not for You

If not for you...
I'd still be green
I'd not know love
I'd stay unseen.
If not for you...
I'd be naive
I'd follow blindly
I'd still believe
If not for you...
I'd still hold on.
You may leave but
I'll move on
If not for you...
for me.