Thoughts in light

She has written herself off

or so she says

watching youth inherit the mantle

she stares at her own flaccid chest

in unforgiving morning sun

and tries to convince herself to gently let go

light pouring in through the bay window

creating a halo effect in surround

she is bathed in unexpected warmth

her pores absorbing hungrily

that urging intensity, a happy blindness

as if the world paused in its toil

to tap her on the shoulder and whisper

it’s not near over yet girl

go out, gather your arms full

live

live

live!

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Nightshade

Oh mama

There are days

I am bent double

The stuffing of me kicked quite free

One side is fear that feels like unyielding felt, thick in my dry, slack mouth

Making me the puppet I never was, when good and whole

So is sickness for the soul

A sour well with brackish water and no yield

I long to be your child and retrace in time to your arms

Fantasies that never were, become, our lullaby

A palpable longing for comfort

Nourishment

To be saved against invisible foe

No

I did not invite you, fever dream

No

I did not beckon you visit me and stay, pinning my anxiety as colinder

Cast as we are, sluggish on fortunes wheel

Like chance, we ebb and flow

Moths without hardy wings

I desired wellness 

and while the summer river ran 

I believed it would never turn

Against me in undertow

Disease is a glutted wretch

A terrible betrayal

A war

You stand in rags fighting until your last

We all do 

But when the bees come and honey is glitter in the trees 

We forget our fear of unseen things

Believe ourselves immortal or at least

The sleek otter who can hold his breath

Longer than sense and her confine

For such a time I rested

Against this calm

Taking for granted what I did not own

And as winter will

Reveal herself bare and merciless

Soon those hours of peace lay behind me

Damp with regret and burned yet

To leave plumes of green smoke

Evoking Gods 

Who may be senseless to our call

For the comfort of our childhood

Curled inside a place

As yet unborn

Do not

Let me stay in this cold fear

Or stand alone 

With its frozen clasp about my heart

Squeezing hope til nothing pumps

But the ice of terror 

I am 

Just born

To this strange chill

The waking before dawn of prescient worry

Will I be well? Will I ever be without pain?

Oh mercy and her ink, clouding fortelling

The whine of our need to know, what Fates only jest

My gut is silent and 

Nothing but the fast snare of my pulse

Can be heard over lamment

I am

A statue of fear

Thinking back

To the Happy Prince

He felt pain

Of others

Taking the jewels that were his eyes

Sacrifice I do not have

A lesson

To think and care as we suffer

Of others and their

Equal walk 

In nightshade

Steady in the walk

When she was very young

younger than the reborn

who climb out of shell

lick themselves shellac

for fear of bombs

before those days

in a cradle among men

the oracle told her

you are thursdays child

doomed it seems to go far

the road will not always be there

to see among weeds

at times

crows will fly down

try to peck out your eyes

at times

the sun will bake you still

in mid-stride

at times

your heart will be shredded

and make a good meal

on desert floor

for pudding you will bake yourself soft

open up your latched doors

for night to sweep clean

such your journey will seem

endless and sharp

like climbing through thorns

touching your blood

as it writes out the will

fate has bequeathed those

unable to stand still

every once in a while

a friend will offer you shelter

sit you near to the harth

bandage your hurt

do not forget

those who protesth loudest

are often spliced souls

seeking revenge like tempting

mirage beckons hungry traveler

however much you may seek

this gentle solace

it comes with a price

take off the journey and inherit

their destruction

better you stay on the road

act as you are treated

for death in rehearsal

makes soldiers of the acursed

soon they will sink into sand

you will find yourself

with those who remain

holding your hand

steady in the walk