Candle in the Corner

Aged
Covered with dust
Barely a flicker
All these years later
You don't fear the
Darkness
But invite it to play
And slow dance with you
Romantic shadow of
Memory
I watch from another room
Cannot have you near me

From my favorite episode of Designing Women

Yesterday, in my mind's eye, I saw four women standing on a veranda in white, gauzy dresses and straw-colored hats. They were having a conversation. And it was hot. Their hankies tucked in cleavages where eternal trickles of perspiration run from the female breastbone to exotic vacation spots that southern men often dream about. They were sweet-smelling, coy, cunning, voluptuous, voracious, delicious, pernicious, vexing and sexing... these earth sister/rebel mothers... these arousers and carousers. And I was filled with a longing to join them. But like a whim of Scarlett's, they turned suddenly and went inside, shutting me out with a bolt of a latch. And I was left only to pick up an abandoned handkerchief and savor the perfumed shadows of these women... these southern women. This Suzanne. This Julia. This Mary Jo and Charlene. Thanks for the comfort, Dash Goff... the writer.

Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree
O Christmas Tree
Looks like it's back to you and me
This spring and summer saw things fall apart

Your twinkling lights
And angel bright
Your tinsel glow inside tonight
You've caught me nursing another broken heart

Christmas Tree
Did you see?
Did I leave him? did he leave me?
It happened so slowly that I can't recall

Now here we are
Just you and me
A cup of cheer (or two, or three)
At least you're here to deck the lonely halls

Christmas Tree
O Christmas Tree
I'll take you down on New Year's Eve
My Auld Lang Syne will be a brand new start

She and Her

SHE: Look at those two over there.
HER (craning her neck): Where?
SHE: Over there, follow the yelling.
HER: Oh. That is an ugly scene.
SHE: They must be dating.
HER (smiling): Why do you say that?
SHE: Why else would a woman let a man talk to her that way?
HER (smile vanishes)

Haiku

We're never so close
So separate from your wounds
Than beneath your cross

Drag Me to Heaven

There are days
of quiet hugs and
no tears
Of just enough milk for a moustache
at the end of funny-face pancakes

There are days
of endless swings and
no fears
Of jumping into the air and
landing with a smile on a face

There are days
Of pretty dresses in
the mirror
Of sister-friends with hours of
stories to make

There are days, Father, that you may have to drag me to heaven.

What He Has

He has his pain and
It stretches for days
He has his cries and
His victimless ways

He has the moon and
The loss of the night
He has the knowledge
The wrong and the right

He has his oneness and
Imaginative trials
He has the loathing and
Sadness for miles

He has no credence
But steps in stealth
He has no sympathy
And refuses all help

Ike (unfinished)

Did Mama ever tell you one day you'll grasp the phone
Cradle it in your scarred hands
Like something worn and beaten to the touch
Shuffling across these grounds
Old man with less than three decades to tell
Spent and fatigued
Scratching for your ounce of peace
I'll make a wish on the tears you weep
If you will dig the well

vagabond sheets (for Tori)

i found much to admire in you
tried to walk like, talk like you
he said i even looked like you when i fell into the right light
but, your skin is too bright
nothing but an alibi's fight that left me on the curb of some lonely street

did you see when he walked away
i used phrases i thought you would say
i put you in my way but your melodies weren't right
so he left last night
while i was watching the light and surrounded in the pink

i must admit, now that he's gone,
i don't know how we'll get along
i broke as i stumbled on one of his laces hiding tonight
that mirror will finally speak
of my form, always less than Greek, that is now hiding beneath the sink

let's wrap in vagabond sheets
bind our hands and doze for weeks
underneath the bathroom sink dripping tears like lightening bugs
stop me from wanting what never was
lights out and hit repeat

To Wake

A mind that wakes to greet the day is very hard to keep
The dreams it holds,
The will it hides
Are often lost in sleep

To reach across that distant wall I cannot comprehend
My body creeps
To and fro
Until the dawn begins

But, firmly in the in between I don't know how to fight
To keep the knowledge
On the edge
Hidden from the night

Waking up is such a shock, an insult to my brain
However long
The night may be
No longer than the pain