Tapestry

New Day

Supernova starling

You see a crippled child but I

See a cosmic goddess

Intrastellar infinity afire

Oh ye of such little faith

You doubt it, You doubt it

The mountains above you reign

Majestic, majestic

You have been knocked down before

And you will get up again

Again

Breathe

Oxygen into the flame

Let go and let it burn

Keep your feet on the coals

When your head’s in the clouds

The sun will incinerate

The heavy fog

And tear right through to me again

Again

The light will reach my eyes

Once more

Oh ye of such little faith

You doubt it, you doubt it

The mountains above you reign

Majestic, majestic

You have been knocked down before

And you will get up again

Again

I know you’re tired fighting

Tired of trying

Tired of dying

Tired of frying

Your brain cells

Your same selves

Your prison cells

Your “Or else”

But finish strong

Live long

And prosper or be wrong

Sing your song

Every day every night

A triumph a torch light

One day I’ll be right

But for now

Oh ye of such little faith

We doubt it, we doubt it

The mountains above us reign

Majestic, majestic

We have been knocked down before

And we will get up again

No matter how many times

I will rise.

***

Heimweh

You hear a song

in the back of your mind;

one you’ve never heard before.

You blink and see a sunrise

from somewhere in the world

you’ve never been.

You hold grudges

with no clear memory

of their origin

You sit in history class

and viscerally disagree

with something that no one

has ever taught you.

You light up at Big Band music

and smoked your first cigarette

like an old pro.

You wake up in your own bed

and cry out of longing

for home.

You are a wanderer.

A tourist in your own era.

For you belong among the stars,

ever a part of the cosmic tide.

And one day it will catch you unawares—

you’ll look over your shoulder,

And lo and behold,

you’ll be home again.

***

Young Bride

It shines and glistens,

There to remind

That nobody listens

When the tie that binds

Chokes and tightens.

He shimmers with pride,

But the weight never lightens

And the tears I have cried

Over the star on my finger

Never did mean much

and never could linger.

Bruised by lightest touch,

And full of silence.

In the end nothing mattered

To the young bride of violence.

Once trapped and battered,

The last word was mine—

“‘Til death do us part;”

At last I’ve reached the finish line.

***

Maybe For Today

Maybe For Today

I lay on my back in the grass

And I wonder,

Have I found peace at last?

In this green shade

Between the earth and the blue sky,

With my back on solid ground

My unsteady footing matters less.

Clover white and maple brown,

I learn to live amongst the ants.

Weighted down,

The need to fly

Fades from my marrow.

The simple things

Have never been enough,

I need the burn,

I need the rush.

But maybe for today

I can simply lay upon the ground.

The bass drives through my head,

The blues in my soul and heavens above,

I wonder again

Why I’m not yet dead.

Spinning like the earth,

Orbiting undeserving suns.

If only the roots could

Snake out and wind ‘round my rib cage,

Maybe then I could be

Held down.

Never wanted to be bound,

Sought out but never found,

My atoms finally seem to

Collect together.

I lay on my back in the grass

And I wonder,

Have I found peace at last?

The simple things

Have never been enough,

I need the burn,

I need the rush.

But maybe for today

I can simply lay upon the ground.

***

Strangers

Our hearts are in the right places

But we are still strangers to ourselves—

Maybe it’s ‘cause we are young,

Infants crawling and thinking

Us mighty mighty men.

There is more splendor all around

Than our inhibited minds can see,

More even than the wide-eyed children

Who sprint like sprites

Through the grass,

Chasing fairies and wild things

And dreams beyond reason.

***

Caught

I’m used to riding the roller coaster

And I’ve long since accepted

That I’m on a wheel ever-turning,

And it used to be thinking of that helped

Because when I was on the ground

I’d soon enough be high up again.

But these days I’ve been caught

On a spoke of that same wheel,

Stuck down in the mud and mire

And the wheel isn’t turning anymore.

All I feel is sorrowful things,

And all I hear is my heart beating

Underneath the bass of sad songs.

The worst part of drowning

Is the ocean pressure.

Manic is a jagged climb

for my fingers to scale

And depression is holding down

The dampening pedals

Until the discordance breaks

Apart the bruised music,

And I am here on this bench

Forever playing the same tune.

All I feel is sorrowful things,

And all I hear is my heart beating

Underneath the bass of sad songs.

The worst part of drowning

Is the ocean pressure…

The worst part of drowning

Is the weight of the earth

That breaks up us brittle human.

All I feel and all I hear

Is all there is.