unraveling

Lift your hand to
the tree, see the
holes in your
body, feel the
empty of your wounds
hear the hollow of
your sound as you
run from the fault

Take hold of your heart
stop, break, beneath the
blood, bend the
branch to bruise
the loud

Quake the birth to
know your signs
root the veins and
sprawl an oak to
reach the sun and
bathe in light

Find your voice to
gain your sight

lumber

From the nest into
the fields
sing the golden crop
beneath the wheat sun

With hands to sow
the joyous seeds
and the scratches that
burn, laced between
worn fingers

Red travels through the
cuts, palms
healthy as the soil
sprouting leaves and
life and green
twirl the sticks and
build a home

grey

I refused you, I
spat you out of my
lungs with venom, but
still I wait for a
word, a letter, a call;
still I watch for
your ghost
And like a child I
come crawling to this crib
alone and the world is new
learning what hands grasp
what palms can hold

I burned you like an
old album's photo
grey with dust and fondness
I ask if you were ever
real or just
an image of pretend presence
I ask if I am
still lonely, if I am
still lost. I feel the
ripples of my heart
quake with murky beats, I
pull on these veins that
flow like a stagnant sea

Breathing without a compass
dizzy from the fall
we are always at
a crossroads, crashing
cars in this
crater-covered trauma
don't forget that
constant-healing bears
constant scars

And with constant shaking, hands
melting, reaching, searching
I don't like how it feels
to start new
I don't like this
puzzle of
me
and
you

12°C

As sure as the
leaves howl and their
tired branches reach and tremble
I was certain your scent would
linger, wrapping itself around
my fingers like a rosary, a
fragrance to adorn my
neck like jewelry

As green as the
mountains roam and as
brave as the ocean, I
felt our footstep's journey, I
believed in forever-ness, I
accepted our trust

But like the cold, painted halls of
cathedral walls or the
dying dew of winter, we are
empty, faded, dimming
I glance at vacant rows and
rooms without souls and
hear its swollen sound

Your memory was
warm as wool around my
shoulders, but with the
season swell, winter cried and
its fondness yawns and pales

My breath can barely melt the
frozen silver, and as I
glimpse your far-off figure
walking in the distant cold,
I don't miss you anymore.

hum

Strike the palms then
bathe the bruise
Watch the wooden stars with
splintered eyes
Blink out the burns and
stare the sun
Quake the hills that
grow green and damp in the
cavern of the heart

Wash the rain of dirt then
stomp the soil
Drink the air
exhale its colors
Hear the wound and
let it roar
Hush the sound and
soothe the blood

Descend the quiet
Command the still.

22.

Laughter speaks the stifled mind
the silent heart behaves
evading depth for easy jest
in comfort we live enslaved
For words intrude the inner space
they question human health
why disrupt imagined peace--
we hide behind false wealth
The quiet things we do not hear
the sadness left unshared
to fracture fragile circumstance
we often do not dare
Thus we drift and stray ourselves
professing family
but soon we find the thread undone
to tremble in calamity

ancient

See you see me
Our shadows behind the trees
You were me and
I was you, playing chapel
beneath the dark blue canopy

And now I stand on
far-off shores, limbs
strong with other craft
I glimpse your back, a
curious glance, aware that
the branch you hold bears
scars of me

Letters carved on leaves breathe
affections to the wind
"I miss you" but
who, to you, is "me"?

I am flesh but I am ghost and
I tremble soil and soul
I live in whispers that
kiss your mind, I am a
ripple in your tide, I
quake and stir

But I fade and now am
dust to sift between your hands
You touch old thoughts like
constellations grand, unknowing that
the stars deny your reach

Primitive and distant dreams
from clay I drew a different me
Yet still I have you anchored here, and
you hold onto me

With ropes we strain our
lands towards us, with
hands we stretch
across this ravine

The universe unfurls before us, but
still I reach for you, and
still you reach for me