Glass

I.

Breathe your life on the glass.
Write her name in the mist.
Question your hopes while it fades,
Clutch your heart inside your fist.

Your brown eyes have seen so little
Comparably, your right brain knows so much.
Still you unearth your dirty doubt
of a soul you couldn't touch.

While your tenacity keeps fading,
like the mist upon the glass,
You continue to ponder loves validity
if indeed it too shall pass.

Wonder aloud I beg you.
O please wonder this to me.
Allow me to be the friend you needed
That your lover could never be.


II.

Beat your chest in mourning.
Give up on love forgot.
Maybe one day you will realize
That all you've given is for not.

But no friendly words can matter
and no touch has felt the same
for you to regain your heart
from its totalitarian claim.

Now her name is gone for certain
from that sallow window pane
But when you see her face before
You shall breathe it out again.

All I ask is for the message
Not on windows but in voice.
Tell me how she made you fall,
whether it be force or choice.


III.

Shatter the glass with your fist.
Yes, the one that holds your heart.
Then release it upon the world
So your new life can start.

Amandla

Paint my mantra on your wrist
to transform the current view
of my weakness in your eyes.
You won't question when I'm through.

Sing Amandla, in a foreign tongue
Hear a chant from long ago
Amandla, memeza amandla!
The seeds of strength I sow

Welcome to my free-land.
Grow grace, pick peace, plant power
To stand up to fear and submission,
A law for hope and not cower.

Sing Amandla, a lover's cry
Dance in the flame of calling
Amandla, memeza amandla!
Through time of trouble falling

Until my declaration dies
among the embers of the past
My grip is unwaivering.
Amandla iculo ami at last.

Light Honesty, Heavy Truth

It's my fault you don't feel the weight
of my fear and heavy hope
playing the blame game with your needs.
But can you hold me to my faultless fear
When you still see her in the corner of your eye
At least from time to time.
While your honesty so lightly said makes me shudder,
I am paying for my bravery; pound for pound.
Now I know I cannot tip the scales
with merely loving you more than she.
'Cause when you smell the summer air
You can feel your fingers across her skin.
Each blue sky reminds you of her eyes
And although my wobbling words are heavy
Her ever lofty airs prevail.
Yet my will grows braver still
Since I finally know you do not read me.
I love you so much I cannot have you.
I have doomed us from the start.
So blame me if you must.

Nothing Better

I can think of nothing better
than the grass between my toes,
or the sunshine on my cheeks
with some dirt upon my knees.

Nothing can be better than
a picnic on the hillside,
feeding the geese white bread
and climbing oak trees.

There is nothing better than
listening to the beach break,
watching lightening crack
the sky still full of stars.

And yet nothing is better than
glowing color on our skin,
A lake all to ourselves
near a rock harbor bay.

I can think of nothing better
than these days I do remember.
How can anything be better
than when I am with you?

Amen

The end of this struggle
At last, the last
Of questions of night
and day, today.
And I kneel to make
my peace. The piece
of loneliness I hold
here. Hear?
This is the end of
wonder. Wonder
aloud to the sky's
blue lie. I lie
on grass to see
the past. Past
my feeble prayer to say
Amen to a man.