“Have you reckon’d the earth much?” – Walt Whitman I used to lay in the grasswaiting for bugs to traverse my limbsto feel their tiny rapid treadon my skinlift my head andcount the stripes on their backsthe dots on their underbelliescatch their gaze for a moment—perhaps it was to feel,to venture I belonged in their…
Category: Poems
Weight
let the water consumelet my body sink beneath its weightuntil it dissolves behindthe tile, the faucet, the flickering lightlet the room, the world I inhabitbe everythingand all else dissipate with the ripples I makedipping my limbsinto the invisible filmlet the surface be still above meand let me be as the surfaceas the space that holds…
A Simple Text
careful am I with words but quicker they seem to be with thoughtsthat come to themreadypacked with a punchlaced with somethingboldwhile I sip waterin the minutesthat lengthen with each keystrokeand backspacethey send insight instantlyto the skywhere I’ve beenlingeringbusy for hourspiecing wordstogether block by blockwhen I ought to havefinished at least somethingnothing remainsthe bottomlineuntil I emerge…
Whispers from Elsewhere
In my mind I’m stillcrouching among the tiger lilies,peering through verdant bladesat the flower-studded landscapebeyond the borders of home—I carry whispers from Elsewhere in the pockets of my lungs,hear them when I exhale, whenin the quiet, Responsibility rememberswho I was before she met meand releases the leash on my temples and tongue. Then my braid…
A Letter To My Friend, Time
Time, you know how much I cherish our friendship,how thankful I am for what you doto keep my life running,and all life on track.But there are some things we must discuss,and I beg you,as a friend,to consider my thoughts:It’s wonderful that you’re always present,but sometimes I need a little space,space to stretch and linger withoutthe…
Itself
“Everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition.” – Rainer Maria RilkeCan you convince the burgeoning oakto grow into a pine?Can you tell the aged cactusto rid itself of spinesor the stone instead of solidity to make…
Vile Silence
Experience rises in her throat,moving behind firm-pressed lips.It builds between bone and fleshstretching flushed dermainto round cisterns, tight and fraught,creaking, anticipating,brooding on the physics of freedom.She tightens brow and jaw,pinches oval skin into infinite ripples, holdinguntil fatigue burns beneaththe failing facade.Weary.Collapsing.How much more can risewithout expulsion?
Truth
Is not a Waterfall, Poised along The path, But A trickle, Flowing Where the Mosses Bend and Nearly meet, Spilling life Through Cracked and Muddied Outlets. It does not Appear By furrowed Ground. It bleeds in The deep …
Your Delight
For my mother Remember when life was long,when the world was roundand iridescent, and smelled of honeysuckle?How it floated, soft as a cloudthrough the universe?Remember how the sun would catch the tree linefilter luminous green rays onto to the forest floor where you and I would walk?The crunch of last year’s leavesa suitable carpet for…
Chains
I. Did you see me trembling under fury, caving underknees too weak to risemind too lost to decipher the chaos, the cursesthey called truth?What I thought–did you know what I thought?(you knew what I thought)Was it apathy, then, indifference keeping you silent as I struck my iron chains against your ancient lawless stones?II.I thought tyranny…