poetry – Page 28 – Poétique

Empath

May be a chicken
Might be a duck
Listen with the heart
If we’ve got any luck
To be held to be listened to
Objectively so
What do we gain from
Attracting these people
Where solitude is not
Treasured and protection
Descoped

Connect me to the intimate
What do we sustain when we’re alone?

Respect the dignity of others
Focus on the compass of your heart

We can’t sacrifice our space
To diffuse self imposed rejection

The fire is burning without us
How shall we dance to call the flames
Calm the brimstone that surrounds us

Call the the wild of loving kind
People voices of understanding
Compassionate energies

Might be a chicken
May be a duck
Don’t smother your authentic self
Listen for the call of love

Edify

Child unwanted
Divorcé to your parents
Clinging to a life that
No longer existed
Your father and mother
Don’t want each other
So you feel unwanted too
When people want to be there
For empathic people
It almost makes you feel worse
Is everything ok!?
Are you ok?
Suddenly you’re not
It’s like you have a rare skin disease
And no one can touch you
To make you feel better
Because it makes you feel worse
Empathy and trouble with affection
Affection is affliction
Machete to the neck
Start over from the beginning
Clean slate is a clean plate

And though the room was full
Of animals we still wanted to revive
The snake and so it was time to
Wake the paper skin that would
Come alive again if we fed it
It took two of us to nurture it
And the lights went off in its belly
When the rat turned each corner to
Get to the end and the snake
Awoke to find its life again

We saw a way for the snake to also
Make its home between the bones
Of neck and clavicle absorbed
Between the shoulders to save the
Child we would need to cut it out again
Full length and body swallowed whole
But without doctor or time to rush
Into the traffic of a hospital
Like some sweet magic the simple slice
Released the snake to see the child
Back up again and to become the
Parts that served him best
Secure and whole

Νερό

Circuitous but constant
Is the path of experience
All the lights go down and
A world opens up to someone
Who hasn’t been seen by others
As the beautiful monarch that they are

He took time to radiate that
Back to her from pictures on
Her walls to the voice of
Friendships from the past
Orchestrated by imagery that
Could last a lifetime

This turned into a reel of
Musical talent that needed to be
Protected and the scaffolding outside
Her home that her grandfather put in
Needed support

I began to help build things as
Some thinned concrete bricks were
Sliding away and the mud became purple
It was more like a work to build
Infrastructure that felt good in your hands
While you were doing it
A tetris catharsis

We knew there was only one way in
Everyone was getting older
She had a chance to guide them
The well was deep
The pit was narrow
She loved the water
Her life depended
On the right angle
To survive

Reminders

Predicting something bad will happen
Is as simple as making a choice to
Express yourself or stretch outside
Of the normal world of everyday
Existence as the inevitable is close
To the same stream of consciousness
Pick a big thing to do for yourself
Watch a big thing that requires
More from you surface to the top
Consistently from this choice arrives
The expected focus to keep your head up
The rules are pretty simple
If you don’t chew rocks
Your teeth won’t fall out
Of your head

Delivery

I am here to deliver your child
I had asked the man will you receive him?
And he said no
So I checked his papers
Dug deep into the contents
Of the computer mainframe
To see what I could find
We shouldn’t leave this child with him
If he isn’t wanted
We’ll find a better home for him

I began to look through the store
For a way to frame this picture
There were no mattes
I looked up and down
But nothing could be found
Lots of parts and pieces but
It felt like they were all for nothing
I found someone
Who gave me a long explanation
For why we didn’t have
The basic concepts
To fulfill small needs
She was nice
But none of it made sense

A woman stepped forward
To explain the best parts of
What was missing and the
Construction that was going on
That caused their store to have less
Than other stores for sale
Approval took forever
But her kindness was
Indeed appreciated
I thought about her generosity
As I continued to work
To find a home for
This displaced child

A cat wandered into the back door
It didn’t want to be held by anyone
But it came to me
It gently bit down on my hand
An older couple entered; they called it bear
Grey cat I hold you like
A mother would at the
Back of your neck
You are calmed
You are soothed
You are home now

Chercheur

Faithful hunter
Full of wonder
Ethiopian dreams
Of Sumerian treasures
A dog I don’t know
In a yellow pasture
Sprinkled with blue
Grace if spilled out
In front of a bridge
Reflecting back
Into the water
What is magnificent
What is mundane
Overlooking the earth
Wheat on my shoulder
Bread against my back
A single strand of hair
Red suede curly wood
Created in silence
Echoes of lust
Sleeves past my fingertips
Reaching into the emptiness
Pull me up
Pull me through
A security blanket
Wrapped in green
Vibrating spleen
Shaky ground
Is safety

Wanderlust

I sat down to eat
A continental breakfast
That was by the water in
Some hotel I’m not sure where
When I heard her singing
A woman I’ve never met before
Did she work here?
Does everybody here sing?
Birds sing so people should too

She was singing loud in public
It was beautiful and
No one said anything about it
As if it was natural to do so
She continued with songs
I also enjoyed and felt like
Nobody knew so I joined in
Harmonizing occasionally
And then she was gone

But a man took her place
He too began to sing
Beautifully and loud
I thought about the last time
I sang
I couldn’t remember when
I also joined him
Looking around to see
Was anybody watching?
This was normal behavior
Around these parts?
He smiled and got up

I stood up from my table and
Found my friends sister
Laughing holding her sides
On a bench rolling about
I asked where did she go?

She said she wanted to go shopping
But she was running all over the place
I knew her memory had gone
Which made her a little unpredictable
But I loved her so
I was going to find her

I turned to see her coming down
A hallway arm in arm with a friend
Would she remember me?
Her hair looked just as I had been
Styling it for her
Pink and curly
As she was turning to go
Into the main room
She saw me

We made eye contact
Her arms went up
And we embraced
As if our whole bodies fit together
Perfectly in this moment
Two halves of a whole

Everyone applauded loudly
It was a hug that continued on
For so long that some of the cheers
Died down but there was
Still the occasional “Whoo!”
Amidst the silence
A never ending hug
Just hanging there
Suspended in the air
With one another
And uncontrollable tears

Pot Béni

It was his turn to make the soup
He had all the directions
Now it’s just a matter of timing
All of the ingredients
Warm the pot
Clean the sides
Clean the gut
Cut the ginger
Boil it up
A giant pot for the
Delights of the spirits and
Cleansing of the mind
The opine of the vegetables
Moment to moment
Satisfies our curiosities
Two times over
Big silver pot
Give it all I’ve got

Special greens
Herbs and things
Magical lot of
Spices to bring
Every effort to hold it in place
For when the bell tolls
We have still our souls
And nothing on earths rock
Will matter because the
Security is still in the soup

Against

I kissed my opportunity with her
Grabbed her by the waste
And embraced her
I did that right but I didn’t know how to
Follow up to know and trust
That she felt the same
I blushed
I should’ve been stronger
I wasn’t strong enough…

I wasn’t strong enough to hold her
I couldn’t even stand up to
Stop the emotions that
Wanted to kidnap
Our only moment
No star is strong enough
To wish upon

Sanity is worth everything
I’m more awakened
By the absence
Of ignorance

Knit the sweater
Hook the blanket
Weave the security
Into your own fibers
What does it mean
To do it for yourself

Face against the asphalt
No other way to turn
No more tequila
Just the whole self
Completing the sound