Panacea

He waits, expectantly, by the door,
Loneliness, that unwelcome boor
And speaks gently, through the mist
“Are you sure, I haven’t been missed?”

Images engulf me – of loneliness, myself and me
He advances; an old sign of empathy…
“I’m not alone now, so why are you here?”
“Not alone don’t mean you’re not lonely.”

I almost let him in: loneliness that sneaky fiend
But the mist, it clears, and from within,
You emerge, fighting the mist and my fears
And I’m so grateful, baby, that you're here.

Questions

Did I rush you into things?
Skew your judgment and thinking
Point out rainbows you didn’t see,
And ask you to trust me?
Did I push in head first,
When I thought my heart’d burst?
And would you still be here with me,
If I lived up in a tree?
Be scared that we would fall,
If we slept up on a wall?
Did you ever realize fear,
Rhymes perfectly with bee?
Here’s something I couldn’t ask Fred,
Do you think we need more bread?

Death and Beyond

Reaching out for memories,

I sink into my mind, but find only pain

Curtains part, inside my head

Happy times lie hidden deep

Among life’s ruins,

Ravaged by the recent past

Death comes, also to those who seek it

I’m sure I did not see it coming

Didn’t you know there were other answers?

Is life better where you are now? Simpler?

Or, could it be,

That you regret a move you can’t undo?

Lobsters, no crabs, we chased and quartered

Only when I wasn’t chaperoning the two of you

But, you can’t hold that against me

Occasionally, that’s what big sisters do

Lunar eclipse

She played hide and seek with the clouds,
Till she grew tired of the game,
Yet, the darkness kept growing,
Slowly, steadily
Till she could be seen no more.

Her radiance diminished, she stood still,
Despite the baying dogs
And the bats — their velvety wings
flapping black against a black sky
For a moment, the world went dark.

Then, with a flash, the shadows peeled back
The dogs fell quiet, the bats stayed still.
As her brilliant radiance lit up the night
We'd known she'd be back.
She knew she'd never left.

Pic credit: Mickie Mueller

Quirky

Quirky is good, she told me
I didn't argue
There are no labels for quirky

Quirky folks get left alone
To live in their quirky worlds
Anonymous and masked

Quirky is carefully wrapped
Till the bubble-wrap changes its form,
And quirky is lost as new labels are found

Happy New Year

I got off work a lil early.
Came home to a silent house.
Put my food into the microwave.
And switched the TV on,
to drown out a neighbor's party.

Name poems

Zigzagging through ziggurats,
Enjoying the feeling of smooth
Pebbles beneath my toes -
Hues of blue and red
Run into one another,
As I smile and turn the page
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My life confuses me-
A lot of a little, and a little of a lot
Remains fragmented in a spiral brain
Illuminated by a candle -
Lit to find what was lost
Yet burning long after
Night has given way to day
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