So Far

She has come so far.

She has become a stronger woman than

She used to be.

But then certain people reappear

And she

Is gone before she realizes what has happened.

She becomes invisible.

So small.

Like she’s never been at all.

Come Closer

Come closer

Dear soul.

Let me warm your heart

For I feel you have caught a chill.

These days have been heavy

And you have not quite been yourself,

Wandering hopelessly without shelter.

Let us create shelter in kindness.

Let us resurrect hope in togetherness.

 

 

I would dance every waking hour if I could!

Letters

She falters for words

(just keep breathing)

So she chooses instead

To pour her heart into

Paper and lead.

She saves her breath

(just keep breathing)

Slipping

Secrets

So delicately

Into the curves

Of each letter

She writes.

(hands steady she keeps breathing)

Assume

You know so little

About certain

People

Places

Things

Yet you assume so

Much

Another Wave

You hold yourself steady

As another wave rolls in.

Which is most frightening

When you feel it begin,

Knowing what lies between or what is at the end?

Invisible slips and invisible falls.

The faceless voices who taunt;

 And from shadows

Call.

Going from gladness

(In deeper)

To sadness

(In deeper)

To madness

(In deeper)

To the darkness within.

The flesh feels alive and well

While the mind makes itself a home in

An unseen hell.

Far Away

How is it that you can pull on my heart,

Stir me,

When you breathe so far away?

I think you left your dreams under my pillow.

I think you left your hands here for I feel them

Singing me to sleep.

I think your essence is in my bed

Still tangled in my sheets.

As You Are

I will leave you as you are

If that’s what you like.

Or

I can return at sundown.

You can put your hand in mine

If that’s what you like.

And place your head on my shoulder.

The world goes on.

The noise continues outside

As warm smiles get colder.

But here there can be just you and I.

Heat from within

If that’s what you like.

One of Many Memories of You

I think of how cancer raged your blood

And bones against you.

How it wasn’t fair

For we were only twelve.

We had too many laughs left.

I think of your crooked smile and how you shared it all the while.

Sometimes I think of the mud puddle and your wig.

How the broken kids from the neighborhood

(just like us but not)

Took it and threw it so carelessly,

 Thinking they were funny.

Just a good old game of keep away they said.

We tried to catch it but they were bigger and faster.

Then we gave up and they got bored.

You didn’t cry but I did.

Anger and sadness.

They laughed the whole while yelling obscenities as they walked away.

I picked it up,

That

Soggy, muddy brown wig.

I saw your shoulders drop. My heart screaming for there was no reasoning.

You smiled. No words to be said. Just a knowing between us at that moment.

You so brave. So big in my eyes.

You were so tired and thin. It’s the last time I walked you home.

I love you forever and always.

We were only twelve.

Stand Up

You have been here before;

Again you return.

You do not have to stay.

Your own self worth under your begging knees.

For love.

For love.

Stand up.