metaphor

maybe love equals

two guardian angels

of the same thing

            — meeting.

 sometimes there are happy endings

sometimes there are happy endings, or have you given up?

to think the night would shine so long as we look up…

yes, there are happy endings, asking what would you give up?

would you forfeit your resistance if it filled your cup?

who are you to fight for it?

who are you to climb, live through another night and shine?

there are happy endings at the end of abandoned roads.

the lonesome valley stretches long as if it’s all we know

until one day we chance upon another way to go…

perhaps the stars behave like mirrors

asking us to try again

to remember the life inside the gift

of a single experience.

trial and error

nothing is so fated

that it can’t be sabotaged.

if you fall in love, remember.

anything alive can die.

parenthood

those who could have watched children age,

seen new dimensions in their laughter

grew gardens instead, rose and sage

sunflower, squash and lavender.

those who could have kissed tiny feet

helped to walk and then run faster

gave up a chance to know defeat,

chronic aching of disaster

because a child crying out

in language beyond translation

needs you to come and see about

commitment without vacation.

two travelers

fear not what trouble brews

behind closed doors in secret rooms

what goes on in your own mind?

fear not the eyes your lover engages

fated are the endless private stages

of what’s alive witnessing reflections

imagine adventuring as you sleep

in all directions, eternity

most would like to go beside someone

2020

you think you heard my secrets

as light floods the darkness.

you know nothing of my past.

you think you know my secrets

like the color of skin or the sound of rain,

the feeling given from a name.

what if what you know is your own?

and the rumors you spread become your home?

where will you run when it comes back around,

the death on your tongue, the violence of sound?

you entered my room without permission

and laughed at the writing on the door,

dreams of music, love evermore.

you tallied the flaws of a miracle out-loud

and spread a web of answers for the crowd.

I fell in love with the man you missed,

for years, just out of reach, your kiss.

before me, your eyes held gravity for him

though I reject your blame for his decision

to take a risk, we let out hearts decide

if the end of the world has arrived,

who would we like to die beside?

you missed the man I loved in flesh

and hated our shared tenderness

and liked to watch me suffer since

for summer’s love songs made to convince

what life was left of love.

the kiss I never tasted

some worlds are only passing through

colliding briefly, me and you

to shape for seconds another view

your world to me was electric blue 

a much younger me thought she knew

what colors worked best in that room

I liked to laugh as much as you

and understood your heart’s true muse

the music that spilled out of you

shook the earth beneath me too

so what I found I feared to lose

as quickly as we met, I knew

not what to say, but how I’d move

if I could be alone with you

my dear sister

I wish to know you the way I did as a child.

While the adults were off discussing war, we forgot them.

While they fretted over what was said a year ago at a holiday party.

While they made bets on election day,

compared the costs of bad choices,

the failures that follow so-and-so.

While they ignored the clouded waters of their own thinking,

habits that can pull a person’s will along like a scared, hesitant beast,

there we were leaping over sprinklers on the lawn

wrapped in birdsong and heat,

our tiny hands interlaced above soft airborne feet

while the air sparkled light’s infinite reflections.