Categories
Love Letters Poetry Thirsty Thursday

How Now, My Lord | Letter 7

Dearest Othello,

How do I write this now? How now, my Lord, after all that’s become of us?

How do I tell you what’s become of me?

I’ve been sun-kissed and wave-licked
I’ve been rolling in the dirt
I’ve slapped a horse’s ass, cherry picked
and I’ve spit creek water to the earth

I’ve seen snakes in grass
and long thin worms, and sometimes chubby slugs
the forest yields such photographs
beetles, spiders, bugs

Moths and butterflies have pressed me
with silken, pollened wings
while no bee nor wasp has ever stung me
as the dog-day cicada sings

A cricket symphony has often put me ‘lone to sleep
under starry skies, dry eyes wake damp with dew
out here I do not care to weep – 
a tear outside was never shed, except those I shed with you

If I never loved another, Desdemona be my name
I have never touched another, yet an Othello I have made
I have never laid another, but you laid me with the blame.

Oh, poor Othello! Confused with talk
fed into ear by Iago’s mouth, untamed and tainted
with mirthful, selfish motivation, to destroy love! Revenge!

Was my mistake the one she missed?
The one where I fought back?
For though I’m fair, when I get pissed
boundaries up and eyes go black

Not so passive, lacking grace
I begged and pleaded and tempted fate
with tearful eyes and ruddy face
now there’s nothing to investigate

I’ve not strayed, and still I wait
as Desdemona would have done
had Othello spared her life and run
her story, I do speculate, and mine

Would be as one.

So though leaves have stroked my arms
And brooks have soaked my pants,
No other man has ever stirred me
Woodsy tickles come from spiders, ants

Still, the forest gets me going,
More stagged than sumac sprigs
How then I touch myself knowing
I’ve never caved to pleasure twigs

Right now, I cannot know your mind
How now, my Lord, I’m feeling blind!
So, in ignorance I must declare:

I will never sacrifice my virtue
To die upon a kiss
Know, still, I’m saved for you.

Love, Desdemona


If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears, each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
Categories
Poetry

Womb of Time

It seems silly to confess such a vision
now, after so much time has passed

But such an image must be released

Like milk gone sour in the fridge,
flushed chunky down the john

How I would have followed you endlessly
how I’m built to follow, as a soldier
chivalrous in bruised armor, undefeated

Though appearing a king, I act a knight —
two forward and one over, L for loser
let’s invent our own games instead

How in my dreams, I submit my strength
in trusted servitude, loyal to my last breath
I am the lion that lays with the lamb

I follow you through fields, under stars, three hours
from home, flashlight in hand, owl calls on a speaker
hung from the lower branches of the pine

The air, cold and damp, presses us together
in scientific embrace and present ecstasy
end of winter love, blooming with spring

I follow you into the tent each night,
our bodies pressing squeaky air out of the mattress,
our throats downing iced coconut water, before each other

Our fingers feed furred friends before midnight,
Touch each other until dawn, pop and squeeze
tickle, tease, and cook together each morn

I follow you across the province,
each step a wish for you to accomplish your dreams
in my fantasy you have aspirations, and you name each one

Before bed each night, you whisper fairy tales to my closed eyes
All the places we’ll live and all the beings we’ll help
the examples we’ll set – no one will kill a spider again!

I follow you to a reinvented world, our happiness laid
bare and bearing only arms of peace, love
the kindness of your hand on my face,
              the warmth of your embrace

I follow you from lake to lake –
I pack dinner for us to take and barbeque
watching the sunset over rough waves
                            washed smooth in the dusk

Though the water’s cold, and I know not its depths
my hand in yours, I dive, snorkeling for the first time,
submerged skin sensations new to my airy nature

I follow you down sandy coastlines,
metal detecting or searching for pretty stones
collecting materials, like magpies, for our nest

I follow you through ups and downs, hardships and
some celebrations do offer return on investment
I like you just the way you are, in spite of anxiety

I follow you until it’s dark, and you begin to fade away
and when this imagination ends, I know you do not stay

Because it was my vision, not yours

Categories
Poetry

Frankenstein

Was I truly a monster?

Having to beg for love crumbs
is ugly

I am not a villain anymore
I don’t steal scraps

And I don’t blame you

For reanimating my heart

When I lay as a corpse on the table

My virgin lips begging for it

Stitched to a rotting head

Jolted to life by your lightning touch

Addicted, attached to your light

Poisoned, angry when left in the dark

The literature you wrote warned others

Stay away from the beast
Science went wrong with this one

So alone I wait
for my doctor to return
with a cure

Not knowing
he got lost along the way

Following lamp light into the marsh
and voices into the mist:

Don’t go home. Play with us.

Is your happiness a monster?
Did you find your truth?

Categories
Poetry

The Only Constant

Different times of day yield
different colours,

Different satisfactions of experience,
clocked shadows, dancing
patches of sun

Yet your embrace
erased such time
coloured everything bright

And our discoveries seemed to
pass us by in a now faded flash

Though the memories
cling like stickseed

Only a dull heat lingers in my womb
creator of gross images,
art and stories, sometimes still of us

All while my subtle winds
carry mournful breaths, poisoned
with attachment

All while my very subtle mind
offers peaceful release, renunciation
accepted, finally

I let you go


Categories
Poetry

Dog Man Grew Up With Cats

The dog boy grew up with cats
they told him he was a cat
spoke to him like a cat
groomed him as a cat
and even though he still became
Dog Man
this pack creature
is unceasingly drawn to felines
their foreplay familiar 
dogs something foreign and rarely
brought round for fun

Dog Man is sensitive and he longs
for a good belly rub
but kitties have dirty claws 
and would rather receive
their own scratch behind the ears
the pissing in a box thing?
not so clean – an illusion
but one puss in the box
is worth two dogs in the woods
so is spoken
so Dog Man clings
like a kitten to the curtains

Dog Man clings
and he won’t run with wolves
he barks with fear 
and he can’t let go

Categories
Playlist Poetry Saturday Expressions

Visions | Session 8

Visions
A Poem in 27 Songs

Runtime: 1hr 49min

I keep waiting to
See You Again
walking into
The Place That I Work

If I Hated You
I’d be
Happier Than Ever
to see
You’re Not Standing Like You Used To
but I don’t

In Sleep
you become
Something Strange
and I dream
The Road Ahead is Golden
I dream you’re
Elvis
13
times

When I’m Alone,
Stoned and Alone
or
Staring at the Sun
or 
When the Night is Over
Almost Everything
reminds me of you
has me
Running Home to You
begging you to be my 
Savior

yet you’re running away:
So Human of You
to want to go back to
The Night We Met

while I want
Nothing Else
but to dance in
The Kitchen
the feeling
Comes and Goes in Waves
so I put my 
Heart in a Cage

Letting Go
I’m protected from
Fallin’

Up Here
I’m protected from the
Fire and the Flood

for you’re a
Pyro
and my heart is tinder

Categories
Poetry Thirsty Thursday

Thirsty Thursday | Who Will Love Me?

Who will love me?

When I am apart from this world

When I stand alone, refusing to be
wrecked by a cellphone superglued to my senses,
application addiction gone awry

When I refuse to partake in modern convention
preferring soft and spiky summer grass between my toes,
humidity sucking sweat to the surface of my skin,
lying upon rocks under thick air,
thick branches bearing bright green canopies,
thousands of thirsty leaves, some yellow and release
reminders that this moment is temporary,
and the Fall will come

Who will love me then?

When I bake appled pies and over-romanticize
the long shadows of autumned evening walks
my season of spiders, ripping through webs
strung out over trails,
boasting my bravery – no more fear of fine-legged friends
just as precious a life, so I give love
I give compassion, knowing these virtues are
given not taken, the cause of the effect,
happiness

Why, then, do I ask for love?

Believing the grasping, the craving
its fulfilment will make me whole, and I
will never want again –
a lie
like salt water quenching thirst
impossible
and possibility
still believed

Who will love me when I am
under a spell of such insanity?

And who will guide me out of this suffering?
Permanently?

Categories
Poetry

Escape

She gets dressed up
Somewhere nice to go
Maybe she’ll meet someone
And be happy for a moment or so

Still, she remembers
Death looms ever close
She’ll lose this appearance forever
And reckon what karma throws

Categories
Love Letters Poetry Thirsty Thursday

Homesick | Letter 6

[The Letter Your Ex is Never Going to Send]


Though recently I cursed your name
Your scent, your breath, a stink, a stain
Your touch, your feel, a pin, a prick
Yet in my mind, you stay, you stick

You’re fastened here, you linger near
As if you’re tacked, taped, adhered
Permanently welded there inside my head
Yet rarely now I wish you harm or dead

You simply appear as though invited for tea
It just happens quite naturally
And then I think…I want to come home
No matter that I’d longed to roam

I’d yearned to uproot myself to find
A freedom I could never buy
I’d have to fight and from that I’d shied
For my courage has not your span, nor stride

When I was lost, I saw your face
It ‘peared before my resting place
Before I netflixed, before I chilled
I’d see you there, and my heart stilled

But you’d dissolve with phantom grace
Leaving me grasping at empty space
Thinking, lingering nostalgic syndrome
Please, my love, can I come home?

I wish I did well on my own
When lonesome time and tears have shown
I simply do not enjoy hollow life
Knowing I gave up love, compassion, kindness, a wife

Someone, I thought, is all I need
To walk the forest trails with me
Perhaps keep me warm on winter’s night
Whom I can pleasure and give delight

Now the nights are long and cold
And though I’m young, I’m feeling old
I’m feeling lost, can I come home?
I don’t like life in monochrome

I miss your colour, I miss your zest
You weren’t unstable, you’re simply best
To think I’d thought you like the rest
To think I’d sabotaged your jest

Now when life is cold and grey
Like on this rainy winter’s day
My mind takes me for that trip
That makes me miss your leadership

I know I should seek happiness and peace
Plan my life, find new love, sign the lease
Still though I dream of travel, Paris, Rome
Mostly, I wish I could come home

Love,
A Dumb Fuck


Categories
Playlist Poetry Saturday Expressions

Lavender Blue | Session 7

Lavender Blue:
A Poem in 30 Songs

Runtime: 1hr 41min

this one’s
for that
Time of the Season
when I get sad, a
Season Suite: Late Winter, Early Spring
singing I’m
Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)
sometimes feeling silly (silly)

You Are My Sunshine
at the time of year when sunshine is rare

I hum
Kiss the Girl – From “The Little Mermaid”
and
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
drinking
Scotch and Soda
watching the
Early Morning Rain
it never gets that cold ‘round here
just so very (very) grey

I met a
Wayfaring Stranger
on a
Saturday Night at the Movies
before saying 
Adieu
he asked
Is That All There Is?

I still see the
Colours
of his
Morning Nightcap
hear his morning
Bird Song
smell
The Wild Mountain Thyme
outside his door
feel the
Boots of Spanish Leather
a gift, before the dance
The Lovers’ Waltz Duet
and
8 Humoresques, Opus 101
[whispering in a foreign tongue]
Poco lento e grazioso

now, I see
The Gathering of Spirits
when I go
Down to the River to Pray
hearing
Tennessee Waltz
in my mind, asking

Where Have All the Average People Gone?
where has he gone?

though I
Keep on the Sunny Side
I think
I’ll Fly Away
Across the Great Divide

to find
The Yellow Rose of Texas

I Love 
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is

and still
No Other Love
will do