Dusk

The snow laden trees look best at dusk
When the headlights bring out the glitter in white
and my eyes fail to see the branches
broken by the weight of wet ivory.
Each snowflake, unique and small,
was too much for the tree to bear.
Sometimes you can hear them cracking
but never at dusk.

13 Ways to Look at a Button

I.
Among the leather of coats
A button
Holds it all together

II.
Alone
The only one who sees me
is a button
the eye of a rag doll.

III.
Napoleon’s Army
Lost to the Russian cold
Their tin buttons disintegrating

IV.
Resting on the dirty ground
A lost button
With a frayed thread

V.
In my pocket
I mistake a button for a coin

VI.
The only thing left to remind her of him
is a button
from his favorite dress shirt.
She cries.

VII.
Late last summer he fell in love
With her sun kissed button nose

VIII.
Answers linger beyond the door.
Locked.
The impermeable code of buttons.

IX.
On or Off
A heavy choice
Made so often by buttons

X.
O, citizens of earth
Loathing and fanaticism
The end of the world
Is just a button press away.

XI.
A small treasure
A child finds a misplaced
Button.

XII.
The wind whispers “shh.”
Somewhere
A button fails.

XIII.
It was early morning
And no one has ever sung
A song for buttons.

Saturation Adoration

Dew clings like kisses on green leaves
Your love is moisture to my soil.
All summer long there was a drought
And I withered with pure sun
Waiting for you to come again; to saturate my heart.

With every single drop you rain
I soak it up like affection.
Eagerly I consume your fallen love
As the water rises higher
Remembering a time before you; my soul evaporating.

Rain clouds cover up the sun
But still I drink the rain.
Submerged in water, I beg for more
Liquid flooding out my roots.
No need for light; I have you, my sweet precipitation.

Soak me in waters deep
Inundate me with adoration.
Engulf me in the flood
Immerse me in passion
Love me until I die
Drowning has never felt so good.

equal and opposite...

Look at me with your eyes
like reefs of coral; blue deep
and smile.
When I say I love you,
you can't help
but move
like electricity pulsing through you.
Kiss the small of my back.
Your face feels rough
like pine needles; I want to touch.
Feel me whisper in your ear.
I send a shiver through you
like cold heat; you gasp.
I take you in with a breath
and it feels
like we are whole.
Every sigh I live for.
I see you adore me
like trees love the breeze.
You move me.

Seeds of Silence

Your hush falls bitter cold as snow
and congregates at my feet.
They fail to fall with any truth,
You lie to me by omission.

Once our words were infinite
and poetry would rain, our flowers
our seeds of truth would grow.
How quickly seasons change.

This snow, this silent killer of love
It buries us in achrome
With each word unspoken
I die a bit more.

Erst I saw a land clear of white
Honesty warmed my core
I breathed unfogged
All lies would melt.

But, still, you do not speak
Blinded by snow I know
that in this sickening, delusive blanch
the seeds of silence here is sowed.

I May Not Remember

I may not remember your smile
how it was rare but beautiful
like the northern lights
we could see from home

I may not remember your favorite color
a dark purple, nearly black
your spirit was too bright for black
but you saw your life as dark

I may not remember the time when
You saved the fish trapped
in the creek during drought.
Who was to save you?

I may not remember the sound of your voice,
I may not remember your favorite song
I may not remember or ever know why
But I will remember your favorite flower
I laid it on your grave.
Forgive me.

Ballerina

Name a song
I’ll sing to it
in front of crowds or
just the room
but
while the records turning
and loneliness is singing
I think I am a ballerina
and I let the music
mold me, move
My limbs into graceful
arcs and coils

Name a song
I’ll play it
my fingers moves so
quickly cross the board
but
all I’ve ever wanted is
is to dance with poise
instead of clumsy plunking
Or cracking voice.
Let the melody control me,
while I dance alone.

Break

Bone scrapes along black pavement
A crack and disconnection
Wrap me up in your fiberglass embrace
A smothering protection
What lay beneath my concrete cast
Is a crushed collection
Of bone, muscle and raw nerves
A joint without its flexion
I pick the gravel out of my knees
A week after inspection
But all the while my body still
Is beginning a resurrection
Mending the splintered bones and scars of
Absolute broken perfection.

Sleep Calls

Sleep calls me to come to bed
To rest my head upon his chest
and let his soft, rhythmic breaths
Lull me to a slumber deep.

Sleep whispers in my ear
of dreamings to be had
with my body in bed
and my head in the clouds

Sleep inhales my life from limbs
and heralds the warmth
and comfort of the night.
Tiredness seeps into my bones.

Sleep pours sand into my eyelids
weighed down by the day.
Sleep is calling me to bed
I shall not keep him waiting.

Confidant (Revisited)

Move my heart to you,
The direction of my intentions.
Can you help my arms to hold
my love without "I love you?"
What's your reaction to my inaction
When you assure what seems unsure?
Still I speak my truthless speech
And I quiet my disquietude.
Could you save me from my sanity?
Will you dare me to be daring?
I expect that, respect that, accept that.
Revive me, alive.

Scorched

First I loved his passion.
His words crackled the fire inside
And he glowed like embers stoked.
I stared deeply in the flame
the molten core, blue dancing tips.
His fire became my sun
and blinded me straight through.
I couldn’t see the fires burn
consume, ravage, and destroy us.
I was ablaze with him.
But once the fire burned out,
and all was reduced to ashes,
I was left to smolder.

Impromptu

Strange song,
Your notes are lightening bugs at dusk:
A blink in the night littered with stars.
You deserve a place in the sky
But you live in the moment.
No chords are written down
Or words recorded.

Sound lasts for an instant
But somewhere between the earth and sky,
You live forever in me.
You were born with the curtain
And you die with its fall.
For your life’s beauty and brevity
I cry.

Poetic

Before I knew you, I wrote love
I wrote of adoration and infatuation
Poems about passion, or lack thereof
for I had yet to feel the sensation.

I realize now that all my poems
when written in a loving pen
No matter what the words or whims
Are prayers for you without amen.

And as all poems have their ends
Poetry's endings are prophetic
And as each prior poem portends
My love for you is poetic.

Perfect

We joke about our first date
being at McDonald's and sharing fries.
We watched movies in my dorm room
and talked until half past four.
That was the first I saw your eyes,
Blue and green like a coral reef from above.

We laugh about our first kiss,
how I teased you until you smiled
our eyeglasses clicked awkwardly
We took them off and felt our way.
That was the first my fingers felt your hair,
Dark, sandy blond though you still call it brown.

We now smile when we speak love.
The first time I was so shy to say.
We tried to make a word for in between
What not yet love but just almost.
That was the first time I fell in love
Real and awkward and utterly perfect.

Buttons

I collect buttons
when I see them on the ground
separated from their worn out purses
and haggard old winter coats.
Seeing them resting lonely on the sidewalk,
hard, cold, dirty and bare,
conjures images of dangling threads,
fraying edges, burning holes and broken connections.
What was once well loved fades to loose-ends
and their broken pieces litter my path.
What once held everything together
drop hopelessly for me to find,
to cup safely in my hands.
Now that it has come undone
I collect buttons
because each reminds me
that something else,
somewhere,
is falling apart.

Memento Mori

In the gully along the trail
Deer bones lay scattered, forgotten toys.
Picked clean of meat and worm devoured,
Set a snowy white in the sweltering June.

Deep inside the sun bleached skull,
The empty arroyo of the eyes
Examines the same small bit of ground
But all it sees is endless dirt.

Foliage hugs the skeleton close
Gripping the shards of deer remains
Grinds the bones into a fine dust
And to each their separate end:

The pulling of body back into earth
I, too, can feel it in my bones.

The Murder of Brady Alexander

A Red Chevy Tahoe
Kicks up dust on this chalky gravel road.
Two headlights struggle against the dust
and the aggressive darkness.
They kill the engine along side the canary grass.
The crickets smother the night to silence
in rural Arkansas.
Two males emerge dragging you behind.
This night was the last you ever saw:

When mortal metal pierced the air
You were too late to hear,
Already watching your body smoke
where neat holes leaked down your chest.

The two lights leave you with only shadows
while the crickets sing your requiem
and the canary grass dances but you can’t see,
Folded up in the middle of the road
As the chalky smoke settles around your corpse,
nothing is left to mark your grave
Apart from the gravel dripping red.

Knotted Hands

There’s a dusty dollhouse in the basement.
A birthday present for a grandniece
you knew was too young to know the value.
You made it with your hands,
Hands that used to know the wood.
Many growth rings later,
I wonder if you have forgotten how.
Do you miss the roar of the ban saw
or the rhythm as you whittled?
Your knuckles contorted,
branches twisting upward.
My favorites were the tulips
that fit in my small and clumsy hands.
You made them for Aunt Virginia.
I haven’t seen them since she passed.
Ash trees to ashes.
Sawdust to dust.
Hands that once bent nature,
Now Nature bends and leaves dusty,
like the dollhouse in the basement.

Costs of Conflict

I saw War when I was young;
it found me where I lived.
Two sides conflicted in close quarters,
Vying for a homeland.
A battle raged from nothing,
Quiet is never peace.
Atom Bombs in the family room
Nightmares in my sleep.
Mother's tears fell like Agent Orange
and Father's words were napalm.
Be careful where you step;
Verbal land mines in the backyard.
I made a shelter out of blankets
but it didn't muffle sound.
My reinforcements crumbled.
Surrender, Surrender…
"You're a brave little soldier,"
they would say
but I didn't want this fight.
Papers were signed but there's no treaty.
I am a refugee from my own home
where we marked my height on the wall.
You can't take that with you.
My homeland is occupied now;
they have painted over my name.
War has a heavy price to pay
but you ask me "what’s the cost?"

Idle Lover

My lordship speaks perilous poison
if he wilt not forswear love

I shalt ne’ver slander grace
vouchsafe fortune with your vow

Methinks your manner quenches winter’s breast
wherefore vehemence foul dost warrant woe.

Were it you who would seek thee only a maiden woman
then loath in thy mischance of my wicked torment

Hence I will ask question of myself as a lady
and perchance envy yon wanton goblet or ghostly bosom

Alas, every death doth dream through mortal measure
Sanctify nothing. Tempt me from melancholy night.

Loathsome farewell, yield.

[Fun with Shakespearean Magnetic Poetry by Page and Amanda]

Give Me Your Hand

Give me your hand

just to steady my own.
Lead me wearily down
this tangled road to love.
Silence in a multitude of sound
And I slip behind.

Do you know where we are?

Echoes, reflections,
Trees cast shadows
on the windshield.
You trap me with your kisses
And you cage me with your arms.

How did I end up here alone?

It's your resistance halting.
I will hold you to your word
in this place we have created
to the brighter end of passion.
If I can't have your heart then

Give me your hand.