that's mrs. mediocrity to you

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!

She lifted her face
to the moon
and sang the song
of soon be gone.

I stood before her
in a shivery bath
of shimmering light
as clouds rolled past
the face of night.

in a world filled with too many choices
how do we ever decide?

and why is the apple always drawn
to the battle of good versus evil?

adam and eve, snow white and
the wicked, hello my little pretty
and one bad can ruin the barrel,
crab and golden, eye and pie
caramel candy truths and
half-baked sugar coating

delicious, filled with life and seed
s(k)in and marrow

i wonder, tiny orb, as you hang
from your dreary tree of ornament,
why i was drawn to you and not
all the others, those brothers

of fall and folly and, of course,
you do not answer, being all ripe
and ready for the picking

you hold no wisdom beneath
the blush of skin, just beautysinbeauty
and the flavor of earth
in your heart.

.

.

.

.

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

with the posture of a perfect impostor
the kind that can look you in the eye and make you see
blue
when it has already been established
that green is the color
of tomorrow

and

i want to kiss your neck
nuzzle in a little
settle down

get to know what makes you

tick

tock

and which words are your favorite

but of course
we both know
you have already
erased them

covered them over
with hatch marks and
strips of black
marker

no looking back
no turning the page
no deciphering
because

everything you say
is code for someone
who isn’t
gone
yet

.

.

.

.

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

.

i hear her whispers in the dark
as i lie staring at the moon
hanging in the center of my window
telling me stories i wish
i had no need to know

the apples she offers
are not spiked with poison
only withered dreams
and the juice of death
running down
through bony fingers

.

i catch all the drips
as they fall from her wrist
with a tongue
i know cannot save me

yet there is no fear
in this bracelet of decency
no menace in her offer
to share

she comes as hollowed out friend
in a cloak i choose
to wear
but makes no move
to hang it
on the shudder of my shoulders

.

she is

happy to wait

the empty space
of ticking seconds

barren and fruitful

the silence of scream
to the motherless child

she is

answer and question
one
in the lace
of each veiled eye

.

.

.

.

.

Fifty days from now, I turn fifty.
And while I thought I would be dreading this birthday,
I find myself looking forward to it.
On that day, November 27th, I want to host a
“celebrate life” blog-link party here. More details to follow,
but I would love to have you join me!

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

you never know
where life will take you

we like to think we know
or at the very least

can guess

but

we are born
with all the knowledge
we need and
spend the rest
of our lives

forgetting

each step brings us
a tiny bit closer
to understanding
that in the end
we know

nothing

because even in
the worst of years

the driest hottest
drought of summer

can bring forth
the perfect blush

of one september
rose

.

.

.

Linking up with the fabulous dVerse poets for Unexpected Poetics, join us!

equality is not the same as experience

and it makes me wonder if
all the first times
have to add up
to the same number
as the last times

and who made that rule
and why do i have
to follow it

it’s all in the numbers
it can all be calculated with
equations and dollar signs

first
smile step kiss

last
kiss laugh breath

not exactly the same
not exact at all

because no one has the right answers
and no one gets to see
the cheat sheet

or all the lines, verbs, nouns and
adjectives that wriggled their way
in between

and the teacher is sitting in the corner
wearing her carefully decorated dunce cap
trying to figure out how to make
her last first time
add up

to all the time
that came before it

and she has all these numbers
crisscrossed on the palm of her hand

but she can’t find one zero anywhere

.

.

.

Linking up with the fabulous dVerse poets for Poetics, join us!

dawn rips the blindfold from my eyes
forcing me to watch another day

unravel

time slipping through stone and finger
with the same giggle of impermanence

whispers

to a heart that takes no prisoners
and a mind that gives everything

away

a broken belt lies on the floor
tanned flesh and silver buckle

remembering

smaller nights and sunshine’s warmth
and all of those tomorrows gathering

promise

and potential in dust-filled corners
stacked with empty broken boxes

waiting

.

.

.

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