Gift from God

Gift from God 

God, 

My Dear God. 

My Loving Lord. 

My Giving Governor. 

My God, 

You have given me the right to experience the pain of love. 

Now you give me the pain of experiencing what’s right. 

Now the right suffers in her white dress. 

And the black gown of pain was worn by her once.

Not just once, not taken off and on, 

But torn and stitched back together— 

With the threads of living.

Made with dead dark animal fur, black and reflective under the light of the winter sun. 

Each hair convoluted and dense in its layers. 

The sheen of fur appears glossed and smooth on the surface. 

Wrapped tightly so that she may escape the cold. 

Oh but the sun never gave its heat in the winter. 

And the white linen of rightness, expensive and earned, 

is too light to be worn against the harshness of its counterpart. 

Oh but how the fabric folds. 

How it drapes and flows with the pleasant weather. 

With the revealing nature of the sun. 

And the hot sand reasoned under her feet— crusted over with its millions in number. 

Yet she dances with delicate drapery— her white fabric

Flapping and waving. 

As if to say:

“I’m here! I’m here, I’m right here.”  

White flowers

White flowers 

In the truest of moments, 

the colors of the world drain away and leave the flowers pure and white— 

they leave the truth behind. 

And when this happens, your heart swells, your eyes sting as they open wide, 

As they watch the truth. 

As clear and stark it is to your eyes, 

It sounds in your ears. 

Music streams even, symmetrical, smooth. 

A song as clear as the morning— white and fresh light seeping through windows. 

—

And you experience as one voice becomes a hundred, then a thousand, then the ground under you thunders— 

A million voices sing a song of hearty fullness. Of meaning. 

 

Woman Wearing Stripes

 Woman Wearing Stripes 

Out of the corner of my eye, descends

A Woman wearing stripes. 

Stranger must’ve seen a ghost, 

She’s startled by a mystery. 

Flowing down the ramp in hazed silence, 

her navy and white streaks. 

Holding a brown bag with her left arm,

at a right angle. 

She’s carrying with her right. 

Stranger stumbling, 

stranger caring—

Stranger catching me almost 

Looking.

Lugging her stripes down and around 

Letting the memory pass like any other. 

Leering sternly- acting crazy. 

Talk about insanity. 

Why is this stranger in stripes following me? 

Must’ve seen a ghost. 

Was it a woman? She seems to have not 

chosen between her right and left, 

she seems to never know 

whether to wear black or white. 

The Woman always parts ways wearing stripes. 

Was she really wearing stripes? 

I can’t remember. 

Tape Tree

Tape Tree

Turn the tape over another time, 

Record my voice until the singing whines.  

when I’m battered and old and nearly free—

Please promise to lay me down by that 

Big oak tree.

The singing haggled life like the bounding branches. 

Hold my hand like the sunlight did—

High up there on that big oak tree

for it swung and twisted

Yellow hugged the warm brown tones 

And the sticky green had grown jealous. 

Jealous of the strong branches 

That twisted with the sun,

Because the branches haggled with life and damn near won. 

Drapes

 Drapes 

Mother of God, and wrenching inked palaces seven hundred paces into the forest. 

Holy nearing the bridges and creaking bricks to nearing their final edge. 

Torment the place with everything the night can possibly possess 

Hunting and waiting 

Hollow and etched, gasping bare windows 

Cold metal stirring with the deserted air;

Armor banded to old walls.

Carry out and deplore yourselves, for the clock will definitely soon strike twelve. 

I told you now,

and I have told you then, 

and you will be told 

that there is nothing to be done. 

Now the place dips and shivers 

Like a bad feeling,

As one’s heart drops. 

The whole palace whines through wind bitten windows, 

And the drapes whip and thrash and flail and cling for dear life. 

Silver satin held by deep-browned brass. 

You can never pale its song, 

Slamming the walls and tattering the ceiling with its gigantic wings 

Its silky sheen glares;

It’s angry 

It’s hurt 

It’s confused 

It’s helpless 

It’s trying 

It’s pleading 

It’s holding 

And gripping. 

And no one knows where the wind blows from—Outside or in? 

Hungry for the view it gives, and forever tied up to cover it. 

Red Ribbon

 Red ribbon 

eyes rimmed with red ribbons, 

Satin grape juice and lime 

Fed through, and tied 

Whatever you’ll find inside 

Is wrapped so tight,

I’ll cry 

And though it’s habit to lie—

Pull the ribbon open, 

Begging you to stay kind 

Since my eyes are still 

Caked up with rind 

The shine looks distorted 

From being tied so many times.

And when we say goodbye, 

We’ll know that’s how we say:

To give with a red ribbon, 

Is to leave and love anyway. 

The Nowhere

 The Nowhere 

Sometimes I yearn for the end of the world. 

Wish and hope and dream for the earth to one day stop turning, 

Because maybe then, 

We’ll find each other in the madness- 

Despite the madness

When the moon crashes to the ocean 

Sending pellets of fire 

To rain down a dense down-pour 

The air blazes, ash rises up 

like sparklers we hold in our hands. 

Burning our brain through our noses. 

And cutting through the thick 

orange air— holding hands 

The rules are meaningless. 

responsibility for our course of life 

Is that to just keep living, the only instinct left—

hold on to people we can’t live without.

Black, thick soot dances across your shoulders, 

Weak and alive 

The world blazes, the sun is dying.

A swirling image explodes, dancing,  

flowering reflection between your eyelashes.

We will match the world around us, 

Finally.

Sitting upside down, 

Above a world 

We can no longer see. 

We belong in the nowhere. 

—

Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5I0NnzG6GSrLkJ7b3GTYIs?si=b5E6WjHoRTuCCSRVrWjVQw

Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1F3rPrxUeVOmKKZWqjuGhu?si=X0ftA3keRsmopIFeXPktbQ

Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/093NpjRdVPM0zE1GlT4gNo?si=QuxHBjGzTSatftlt5Oy1jw