"You Can Tell Which Girls Lack Mothers By The Look of Their Hair"

( Imaginary Garden With Real Toads Sunday Mini Challenge-

The Secret Life of Bees)

When I looked into the mirror

 I knew she wasn’t there

Lost in some distant place

where sanity, shipwrecked

lie buried in the sand-

Mother’s hallowed sanctuary

where daughters didn’t exist.

Girls-

with boy cropped hair

searching for beauty which wasn’t

there .

Seeking communion-

 

lost little girls

in grass stained jeans

Digging for China

in backyards

Not to be seen

much less heard

in her silent world

where we never tread.

We never reached China

that far off land

on the other side of the world

Still we dug, reaching and reaching….

 

Grounded

Grounded

Does not the flesh

weigh us down

like mermaids

without the sea

to bathe away the human

longing ?

Gravity centers us

forces us to stay-

Always seeking wings

or fins to carry us away

to some distant space

in time, we left behind                                                          

when the hand of God

made us human, knowing
it would be the suffering

which made us strong.

http://dversepoets.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/sky-fishing-by-catrin-welz-stein.jpg

Not So Far Away

Not So Far Away

I don’t feel so

far away now-

Like I did all those years

living in your shadow

its darkness only filled

any filtering light I could

 glimpse from time to time.

Just beginning to embrace

all those parts of me

you devoured in your

never ending self-love

self-hatred,

 I could never

tell the difference, only

thing I was ever sure of was

that I was dying without the light.

I don’t feel so far away now

I occupy my own shadow

it embraces me and lets me

feel what you never would.

Fall

Fall

You arrive-

 with a different air

Your fiery hue

arrogantly reminds

that even in dying

there is beauty.

Time to put away

those soft floating dreams,

settle down into the warmth

of remembrance-

Knowing they will return

with a new season which

has aged the wisdom from

which they were born.

It's Different Now

It’s Different Now

                   

It’s different now-

The breeze wakes us

with its autumn chill

Seeking warmth

we overlook each others gaze

Stealing an embrace which

leaves us empty

Still we seek those warm

summer days, long since gone

Too much labor to birth again

to go back and remember

the why of us-

For it leaves us lonely.

For Dad Who Loved Hank Williams

For Dad, Who loved Hank Williams

I feel you

when I listen-

To his old songs, remembering you

 lost in their timeless words of heartache

 in the lyrics of a man wiping away

 tears, “so lonesome" he "could cry"-

Empty in a place where love

never slept and wishing haunted

the halls with its dark pleas.

Letting Go

Only at times
will I confess-

The loss I am feeling
letting you go

to all those places
daughters must tread
to find themselves.

Some are dark
and frighten me.
Some are so close
but I must keep my distance

feeling your roots
breaking free from
all you know.

There is an emptiness
growing where I kept
your childhood.

I am left wondering
if that space will
remain vacant now that
those days are growing old?

I must cut back the limbs
I held you with, leaving
you just enough to always
feel at home.

Build Me a Castle

Build Me a Castle

Build me a castle

of sand and stone

fortress against raging

sea and sky.

Protector from the wrath

of the storm’s eye

Build me a castle

upon distant shores

Far away from those islands

I drifted to in my youth

where pain bled

but never healed

Build me a castle

from all I know

to be true.

Becoming More (Mindlovemisery prompt 20 Wordle)

Becoming More

Isn’t denial

vicious in its

so-called mercy?

Pharisaical-

as we wear its thorns

in our pursuit to humbly

accept tragedy as our lot,

fearing to acknowledge

our own self crucifixion.

If we were to discard

this facade, who would

we really be?

Not the self-proclaimed martyr

riding the stars to heaven

but just a simple human being
on the way to becoming more.

I Remember (dverse prompt-Try to remember...)

I remember

I remember

the day you fell

from your own grace

 yielding to the world

and its dark wishes

swallowing each bitter pill

until the bottle was empty.

Lazy lids, fluttering as memories

fled, filling the room with their

quiet ghosts

I remember how empty

I felt when I realized I

would never see you again.

Saying goodbye is never easy

but that farewell is still

as bare as bone

even as the sun warms

the memory of you.

Twenty-seven

Twenty Seven
(Inspired by Amy Jade Winehouse)



Old soul aching-
Too much pain
for one voice to carry.


Notes played hard
Feel the tears behind
each lyric's sigh

as angels bow and break
beneath a silent sky.

Fairytales (Mindlovemisery prompt 19 Food- deprivation;apathy)

Fairytales

Sweetness
to be savored
before the bitterness
came home in a heartbeat.

The steady rhythym
lulling into a sleepy surrender
purging the emptiness
with once upon a times
and happily ever afters.

Fed on fairytales-
still hungry.