The Leaves Have Gone Home

(in honor of the lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting...)

There is a part of my body

That creaks

When the first shots ring out.

There is a crack that gapes

Deep inside me,

Quakes beneath the stare

of pure stealing furtive glances

at the clock.

Tell me.

What is the best way

To kill time?

My body has too many lonely tick marks

And I’m not sure I’m ready to talk

Just yet.

When we realized our cheeks were wet,

We coyoted to one another,

Sensationalizing our own grief

Gritting our sensibilities in disbelief.

There is a part of my body

That stopped working

When those shots rang out.

At the same time,

It scribbled love letters

All over the walls of my lungs

To every one of their stolen breaths

Your deaths

Came off the page,

Origami’d in our heads,

Little bits of paper

Freshly green from heartbroken trees.

If the leaves do not come back this spring,

We will understand.

We will know that

The roots are not taking in water,

They are too busy pouring out

unopened Christmas presents,

Unsung birthday songs,

And understanding

That will never come.

I cannot jackrabbit away

Fast enough

To see this undone.

None of us can.

None of us will.

Appalachia Waltz

I mourn

The loss of your sweetness.

Truly,

There were times when I really

did not believe 
in better things.

And then you reminded me

Yes.


There are.

Thunder

Let me tell you something.
I have opened my mouth
to a great amount of nothing
and gotten everything
out of it.
We have gotten
everything
out of it,
you and I
made a song
out of each others' synapses
and they called it
The Symphony of Loneliness.
Yeah,
We were trite like that,
Made of small packets of sound bytes like that,
Quiet
Wasn’t even in our vocabulary
So I said go ahead,
Bite down on my crazy
Suck the marrow clean out,

Listen
You are motorcycle handlebars
I hold on for dear life
When I should just enjoy
The heat on my legs,
The thunder in my hips.

When did you start thinking
You could hush my percussion?
When did you start thinking
You could pirate my calm?
When I said, “hold me baby”
I didn’t mean at bay.
Say what you want,
But you will never
Haunt me enough
To wish you back to me.
Your teeth
Were the size of terror.
Your bite
Was the sound of heartbreak.
Break your gaze on my fist
Take this, so you will remember
That when I said buy me a ring,
I didn’t mean leave ringing in my ears.

Honestly.

You still make me shiver
with your hands full of quiver
and your teeth full of shake.
Make me feel your ocean
and bury my head in the sand,
but you will never
comprehend
how to silence
the song in my bones.

Ruth

(another short one today...)

My wrists have your name

Carved into them,

So that your lips

know where home is.

X marks the spot.

Pieces

I could not stay and

watch you go to pieces, dear.

I am broken too.

Seismic (WIP)

A quick blurb to keep me honest... I'll play with it soon. For now, enjoy what I have found within myself:

You cannot hold the seismic quality of my laugh; any attempt to do so will destroy your concept of heartbeat. Of Heaven. Of Hell. Of healing touches and tongues across teeth. Beneath every wrinkle are treasure maps. Reach out and pull my lapse in judgment out; do you doubt the strength of my belief, just because I do not say "in Jesus name we pray" and pray directly to my Father? I have walked farther in these coccoons than you have in your monsoons and my grace has never been considered from the wrong season. There is no reason for you to grip my laugh so tight - it is anchored in my windpipe so it does not blow away.

Shiver

You still make me shiver

with your hands full of quiver

and your teeth full of shake.

Make me feel your ocean

and bury my head in the sand,

but you will never

comprehend

how to silence

the song in my bones.