that's mrs. mediocrity to you

one brief glimpse

through this self-imposed fence

reveals

nothing at all

and all that exists

in the tangled-up briar

of dawn

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 10
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

she’d flown in from tuscaloosa
smart and shiny when she started
ready to take on the world

her world

made of sky and rain
and wind bent on murder

no one from home missed her
leaving
sun rose and bloomed
each morning and moon
danced a parody of light

earth was green and
flying geese pattern
and in between
there were great gulps of air
solid and ethereal by turn

in the end her thirst became
compass
spinning off kilter between star
and saloon

and the way
she kept coming up empty
turned each tiny bone
to lost stone

still

she found her legs

home

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 9
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

i remember the day i grew up
my hand on your shoulder and my heart
left somewhere in amongst the gravestones
we’d run through without tripping

and i realize now we made a trade
that day
you standing still
and me never stopping
chasing ghosts i’d never known
but surely

inherited

the clouds sung a choir
of revelation
just before i knelt

to pray for silence

and then i was off
like a shot or a doe or a wild-legged
mustang

wind in my hair streaming long
back behind me
your hand outstretched
but never grasping
how i’d left you alone

with your fear

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 8
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

as we fly
blindly

towards the filament of sun

our very own
mirror map mirage

beckoning
from cloud

carved by wing

and strength’s
survival

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 7
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

your song is less music than savior
rippling up
through barren branch and filtered bud
and i want to hold it in my arms
with the betrothal
of forgotten afternoon
golden grey and cerulean
swirled together in marbled veil
beneath this sky
holding you aloft and me
down
raking my skin
with feathered dance
and dripping wind
and the jewel you bear
on each closed wing

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 6
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

i see you best
through broken edges

you are (w)hole
and I am fence

and together we form
our own boundary

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 5
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

who are you
to break my name
when you’ve never held my hunger
or bled my flame?

who am i
to step on these black borrowed stones
drowning in this pond
of hollow bones?

there’s a space between stars
filled with wing-shaped answers
and the ladder
hangs from clouds
strung by bees

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 4
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

yesterday i cut the tall grasses
cursing and creaking
just the same as every year
all complaints and mess and
blisters

i thought of you as i snipped and gathered
wondering why i bother
with these spreading earth-takers
clucking at the way
their roots
have broken the box i built for them
and thinking perhaps
it’s time to dig them up

plant some dahlias

maybe

but then i remembered
how much i love to listen
to the sound they make in summer
each tiny gust of wind
whispering ten thousand secrets
in a language i don’t understand

i thought of all the times
i’ve used them for shade in late august
pad and pencil recording streams
of words i can’t quite hear
and that day a black striped dragonfly
landed on my knee
with a message i still can’t
decipher

and then i gathered up my tools
and walked inside

no decision but my thirst
to let them stay

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 3
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

.

is always hiding something

you think it’s the truth
sitting there in the corner

blinding the crowd
with the blunt edge of honesty
and the tall maleficent glare
of guilt

but the real story
is tucked in a fold
packed in a trunk
trampled down
beneath one
wrinkled knee

you tried painting over her once
sky blue skin with purple clouds
yellow elbow and dotted cheek
smoky eyes and faux striped tail

and then you started over
using camouflage and collage
picture frame and paper tchotchke
knitted throw and burnished rug

in the end

your hands
were stained with fiction

one thousand pages
you will never wash off

and you stood naked
in the shadow

of your story

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 2
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is secrets.

.

so much living out loud
these days

so much songbird singing
and restless hand wringing

so many rules to swallow and
pills to follow

and offenses taken to
deep down places

so much sleep to lose and
outrage to booze

mirrors to crack
or pick up the slack

erasures and silence
muzzle and roar

whispers to settle
behind locked door

but i say
let them stand

all those words
to be banned

all the phrases
that offer no praises

words are the drones
in the war of lost bones

our last strong shield
in the cracked force field

of tomorrow’s glinting
freedom

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 1
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is resistance.

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