A Blank Canvas

There are streaks on your nose where he struck,

Bruises on your back where his words found their mark;

Dark speckles dot your side where she spat her venom

And told you you’d never be enough.

You scrape underneath the pain,

Lifting years from a canvas once bright–

Leaving chips of the lies they told you

Scattered on the floor.

You’re tracing new lines now,

In skin forever yours,

With brushes untainted

With all of those sores.

You paint upon the surface,

With pigments black and blue,

Lines of orange on your shoulders

Muddled with red.

You’re filling your canvas,

And crafting your heart.

You’re filling your canvas

Finding your soul.

You’re filling your canvas,

And starting anew.

You’re filling your canvas,

And finding you.

Vacant Houses

Tell your heart to stop building homes

For each passerby

And vagrants who just stop to eat.

Rip up the welcome mat

And suffocate

On the dust of those long gone.

Shake out the curtains

Stained with mold;

Torch them on the stove.

Breathe deeply of the spores–

The only living things

Or loving things for miles.

Take a knife to the carpets

And carve every name you’ve lost;

Start in English, end in incoherent pain.

Fill the sinks with water

Til the floors are overrun,

Soaked as deeply as your scarlet sheets.

Sit before the fireplace,

Warm your hands on vacant letters–

Full of words and nothing else.

What are promises to the fleeting

Or foundations

For these already dead?

What are promises to the fleeting

Or foundations

For those already dead?

Take Me Out to See the Stars

Take me out to see the stars

In the freckles of your eyes;

Make a wish in whispers

To tear apart decades of lies.

Take me out to see the stars

Trace them in my palm;

Call my heart with constellations,

Name each until I’m calm.

Take me out to see the stars

Until the moon descends;

Promise me beneath their gaze

To be forever friends.

Take me out to see the stars

And as each fades away

Deny that they’re forever gone

But, like you, are here to stay.

Home

I hold you in my heart

And in my arms you sigh;

Our chests rise and fall

In quiet,

Rhythmic,

Harmony.

Your breath hitches ever so slightly

As my fingers begin to caress–

Gliding down the valleys

Nestled in your back.

My thumb finds refuge against your neck

Gently stroking

To your chin

Down

To your collarbone.

You grasp my shirt tightly,

Trying to hold on

To some semblance of peace.

I breathe,

Pull you closer

In a warm embrace,

And kiss your hair like a whisper.

A sweet promise

That we are our own

And yet,

We are each other’s–

A bond unbreakable

By life or death.

Your breathing slows

As my hand rests on your lower back,

Thumb brushing ever so slightly,

Painting swirls with the other–

Looping on your shoulder blades,

Trailing down your spine.

We are alone in this moment,

Two souls intertwined–

Touching where fingers cannot reach.

My arms surround you again,

And finally feel at home.

My Legs Are Quiet

My legs are quiet;

I try to listen,

But they’re so still–

Afraid to even breathe.

I stretch them out,

Trying to reach them,

Pushing the bones to awaken

A voice that whimpers.

Instead of coursing like blood,

It trickles–

A leaky faucet

Dripping messages like

Morse code.

I press and hear them briefly,

An echo of pain

Imprinted like ink

Stamped in ages past.

They jump at the slightest noise;

They run when I am still.

My legs are quiet;

I try to listen…

Meditation (Ocean)

Breathe with me,

In and out…

Close your eyes;

Hear the distant shore,

The waves–

Rising,

Falling,

Like breaths

Rising in your chest,

Falling from your nose,

Resting at your toes.

Feel the water pull at you,

Letting your soul drift out,

Exhaled on ocean breeze

Slipping through the leaves

That veil Summer’s heat.

Feel it expand

Like a sail on the wind

Stretching out your doubts and fears

Until you can see through them,

Until all you see is horizon

Water going on and on and on.

Breathe in the sights

And exhale the sense of urgency.

Feel your feet

The sand is warm between your toes.

You curl them

And let them go,

Watching particles fall

You smell the salty air

You smile.

You open your eyes

And all around you is warm.

You are warm,

A bright, shining star;

You feel at peace.

You cannot stifle me,

Though the cotton in my throat insists

In crowding out words.

You cannot blind me,

Though cataracts creep–

Milky tendrils like feet.

You cannot mute my world

As static weaves and pops,

Like kernels on a summer day.

You cannot numb my flesh,

Though it crawls to your touch

And rests when you are warm.

You cannot stifle my tongue,

For the richness of clouds rest

Melting like a creamy kiss.

I will not be overcome by you;

No, I will not be rewritten.

My words, my heart, my bones…

I am my own.

Sweet

What’s wrong with sweet?

It’s just…

Unsustainable

Not filling…

Like SweeTarts or Pixy Stix on your tongue,

There for a moment,

With a slight rush,

But then it’s gone…

Staining your tongue

With merely an aftertaste

Of words with no real meaning.

You say “kiss me”

With more fervor that I can ignore.

Our hands are shaking,

Pawing for handholds in wrinkled fabric.

Curled fingers grasping at strands of hair

Like lifelines from a sinking ship.

Our lungs gasping for air

As teeth part to breathe each other in.

Lips misplaced in speaking

Love between syllables,

With tongues too tied up

To muster understanding.

I lean back to take you in

Eyes shining at all you are,

All we are,

All we have been.

I smile at your floofy hair,

Your reddened cheeks,

Those eyes staring back at mine,

Like nothing else could matter.

I cup your face in my hand

Running my thumb against your cheek.

You turn and smile into my hand

And kiss my palm.

I close my eyes;

This is home,

Not some arbitrary place to leave my coat,

But a place to rest…

More than my body,

But my soul–

Our soul…

One.

Silence in Speaking

There is no silence like speaking…

Half-truths make a better fence,

Than stone walls could ever be.

Cover up the wounds with smiles

And laugh memories into a corner.

If you have to paint your lips

And pin them in place to fit in,

At least you have a chance.

There is no silence like speaking…

Keep it up and you might believe

These pillars more than prison bars

Around your teeth

To sift your speech

And train a once idle tongue.

There is no silence like speaking,

Except each breath is like breathing lead

And your lungs and heart grow heavy still..

Inhale.

Exhale.

Stop.

Begin again.