writings
Chance Encounters with Strangers
Muttering like a mad woman
I walk unnoticed.
Words slip through my lips.
Vengeful. Angry. Sacred.
Powerful in their emptiness
Because I only say them to me.
Justified as a hidden sun.
Until I turn a corner
And encounter you.
An abrupt stop that makes all the words
Spill on the pavement
And evaporate as if they never were.
My shattered-glass heart dances like diamonds.
Even though the wary world
Continues to revolve around us.
Blue
The blue of the house matched the blue of the sky that matched the blue of her eyes when she was born into my arms and I an unlikely mother that dyed myself blue to match the blue of my boy who was never my man in the blue twilight of our years where I laid down in a solitary field content in the blueing wonderment of my condition.
Forethought
Maybe you were a long slow
Burn of recognition
That I did not understand.
Until my hand quaked in yours
And my blood roiled with longing,
Then settled with satisfaction
In the arms of a tomorrow.
Can We Love Ourselves Best
Can we love ourselves best when at our most terrible?
When every word is a pinch and a hard punch to the head?
Can we have grace for the splash of mud thrown on our Sunday best?
Even without a backward glance of forgiveness?
Can we extend a steady hand to that which is odorous and tough as flint?
Sure we will be met with the snarling, hard bite of contempt?
Can we wash the piling laundry and sweep the floor of debris each week?
Knowing the clean lasts only as long as a meteorite’s promise?
Can we love ourselves best when at our most terrible?
Holding sharp stones of hope in each palm to keep our heart from faltering?
Pleasantly Insane
How delightful to reach an age
Where I can be pleasantly insane
On a daily basis and people are mostly polite.
Nodding along with an occasional pat on the back.
Agreeing that I am problematic
But not dangerous.
It is most lovely.
Especially as I am smart as a cat
And hum happily from the depths of my belly,
Pretending to laugh along
At the joke that’s not on me.
