Monday, August 10, 2015

sword.


it is a funny thing to feel the spirit rise
when the muscles and bones of the house are leaning slack
and weathered from a
season of electric wind and dry, thick rain.

I've been waterlogged by the drought of tribe,
left wandering under stars I've never met.
An acid smoke rises into my eyes, my feet are damp with wreckage.
Here, in this small arc I draw with my empty hand, is the old me burrowed into the hearts of ghosts.
I believed you and in you, carved a nest.
Now, this hand, fixed with a wet, metal blade stands over a wooden landscape of hard truth.
There is a time to let go. There is a time to say no. There is a time to rise and roar and walk away from all those things that reach in to hurt us, to diminish our light, to cripple our soul and ask us to shoulder the wickedness of a room gone black. There is a time to stand still, to let fall our arms, to give up the reaching for those things that forget us, that say we are too much, that fail to feed our hunger or water our thirst.
around me, the circumference of trials still smolders.
I say goodbye to this territory of mistaken allies and walk patiently through the wilderness.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

pause.


a voice
still
speaking in a whisper.
in tones that resemble something electric and fueled by
fire.
cracking, spitting, hissing.
silent.

I walk to the edge of the treeline. you, young buck,
stand and wait and watch
and then,
return to your snacking,
turning green leaves with the whip of your tongue.
pausing mid chew to contemplate
my presence,
my scent,
my invitation
to allow me to be here. quietly, reverently,
respectfully.

let me take you in.
let me stand next to the magic of you
and try to recall who I've become in this magic-less world
that has bruised my hope.

let me stand next to the certainty of you
and try to remember who I am or who I am
to become.
I feel still full with sleep and do not know
how to waken from a dream that leaves me
restless.

how, I wonder, has the world continued on
while I've stuttered at a pause,
surprised that I am older
and feeling, still, so small and
untethered.

do words like right or wrong belong anywhere in this world?
or shall I sail them from my lips and let
them land and lie and languish
in the sliding summer sun?

thank you for your permission
to let me stand next to the
wisdom of you
and try to forgive my own fears.