that's mrs. mediocrity to you

.

see, i told you:
you can only get lost
when you’re following
someone else’s map

why don’t you ever listen

and

i heard she took everything,
even the cat

the rest gets drowned out
by a splashing bus and
the slap in the face
of exhausted exhaust

.

when the light turns red
and the crowd surges forward
my tall boots refuse to carry on
and i stand there

anchored

by two tiny pieces of
strange stranger’s conversation

smiling because
i know exactly
what she meant

and a mewling kitten
is winding
infinity

around my warm and silent
ankles

.

.

..

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night

snow crunches and gives me away
as i stalk the howl of this january moon
a barefoot shivering gypsy
in a white gown meant for summer
snapping in the pearlesque breeze

the seasons have forgotten
how to be themselves

your forest is home
to a bird i cannot name

but i am not afraid
to stand here in the dark

not afraid to burrow under trees
and tunnel through silvery shadow

i already have my own scars
glinting white in the light
of fullness

when my back is turned
you trace them with your cold
clay shiver fingers
while i hold my breath
and play spectral

i know how much
you need
this map

.

..

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night

.

i hold nothing in my fingers but time

you laugh and say

impossible

but in your heart

you hear whispers of minutes

.

in winter

the sun is empty

i paint gold leaf onto snowbanks

and we watch

another day melt

.

yesterday i extracted

a sliver of silence from my palm

when i held it up to the light

i saw a fuzzy grey snapshot

of midnight

.

.

..

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night

you steal them in the silver haze of twilight
fighting hard to keep from being swallowed
by dark forest and beckoning fern

snatching words and phrases by the tail
as you fly from branch to broken
in a black ribbon melody of midnight

an owl in the pines smiles at your attempts
to scribble scrabble puzzle out each line
with dissonance and hollow heart echoes

into a ransom note of bittersweet cacophony
hoping only that one star will listen
all the while knowing it will come to rest

in the cached out core of a long dead oak
with shiny bits of treasure you collect at dawn
and offer up as sacrifice to a beacon

that will never shine the light of beauty
on your coal-flavored eye or add the flair
of accessory to your brittle silhouette

but no matter no matter
you mourn you caw
you fly

and what i want

is to tell you to run

the life of a poet

is filled with blood

and you will never be safe

you will always be sorry

your heart will always

fall from your sleeve

to be trampled

but we both know

it was never a choice

so i bite my tongue

purse my lips

squeeze hard

to hold the words in

just like so many other

long quiet nights

when i watched you

sleeping

and the only one

that escapes is

write

.

.

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night

i’ve spent much of my life
seeking out the illusion
of peace and quiet

hiding in corners and
pasting wallflower smiles
onto ruby red lips

curling inward and
protecting a tiny kernel
called heart {hope}

listening to silence
even as the music
blared boomed sizzled

looking up at sky
while a rainbow
had its arms around me

making wishes on stars
burning brighter
than ancient ceremony

and all this time

all these years

all i really had to do
was open my arms wide
and dance

.

..

.

Linking up today with dVerse poets for Poetics on peace

none of it is pretty
but all of it is beautiful

silence is a game
we have forgotten how to play

shrapnel has become
the currency of time
…….. (as difficult to remove as ever)

sarcasm and wit spin down
from two entirely different trees

evil is the root of the flower
whose petals we eat for breakfast

sacrifice always begins to wilt
just minutes after dinner

the moon is not there
for our amusement

it’s a seed that has yet
to be sown

.

.

.

Linking up today with dVerse poets for Open Link Night

i have no place
to put
this broken heart

no shelf wide enough
no bucket deep enough
no abyss dark enough

it sits in my hand

beating
beating
beating

bleating

hope dripping
through my fingers

faster

than i can catch it

i stand here beneath
this forever sky

naked and afraid and

raise arms high
until this cracked love clock
eclipses
my view of the sun

backlit kaleidoscope prism

the color of everything

hold on
hold

on

i have no place
to put
this broken heart

.

.

.

Linking up today with dVerse poets for Open Link Night

I am the wraith of winter

I spin loose tales of death and direction

decorate with grey and hollowed out stones

.

I light the night with moondust and parody

weave rough wool from forest and folly

paint the sun into places you’ve never imagined

.

I can warm your toes and chill your heart

breathe life into howls that could tear you apart

sit silent when you beg for a song

.

I wear a belt of keys but never open a door

rattle chains that were forged from lost days

hope is the ring I wear on my finger

.

I am always gone and never away

neither friend nor foe in your subliminal story

I am the wraith of winter

.

.

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night, join us!

pink raspberry rhyme of sky
in a slice of winter window
pie-faced and pretty
and asking nothing
in return

no one ever said
a clean slate
was required
to be grey

.

.

.

.

Linking up today with the fabulous dVerse poets for Open Link Night, join us!