Foreigners! Foreigners! He announced with great delight Perhaps he even tugged on a sleeve made a small jump If only I was always so happy to see myself
Tag: free-verse
Last Night
Last night I dreamed a false choice between past and present Woke knowing I can live neither again Instead today I trust a third way lies ahead And loving hands to guide me
Twenty
What are these twenty more or less hauled beneath my skin these days and years? The weight of grief my own, others' debris of hope disrupted Do I set this down as a stone, an anvil (anchor) or poured as dusty spoonfuls along a leafy path? Whatever means slow or sudden I lift, lightened lighter, alight
Middle Kingdom
Which way home? At once everywhere and nowhere I have become a stranger to myself mute to sigh, sing, grieve I long to know the truest thing but have lost both west and east now only a citizen of this middle kingdom
Sleepless
These sleepless years how many now? There are directions for every finger to point I'm weary of explaining with exhausted words More than sleep I miss my soul These dreamless years how many now?
Olema
Follow the road out through the wet wood breathe there where the path ends Twists and undulations windows down know the curves as your own body Cross and climb the rise gravel crunches welcome black dog barks and wags keeps pace as you drift, stop Door unlocked even in the dark the way is marked by lift of laundry and smoke Wherever you are wandering the wide world know you may turn today to find home
Stones
When I go let me leave only words no other mark or monument If you must stack stones let them swim from a river or stumble from a field Know that this dissolution this resolution greeted me as a friend
Vernacular
You never knew the ones who loved me first and most places I remembered myself with ease those many splendid little markers that cried out: home! home! You knew me only as a stranger in a strange land liminal lover versed in your vernacular and not my own
The One
I am the one who got away you say When I hear that story I remember How much it took for me to drag myself free Limping toward the promise of something better without you
Two
Oh, Sugar I wish I didn't know what it's like to love two at a time To love the vowed and the dislocated longing across distances gripping the messages from that other world Belonging everywhere and nowhere at once I wish I didn't know the ache of wanting something different for your children than you need for yourself I wish I knew the way to be two
This Verse 