terror roils oozing
ganache once hidden
inside us stains
teeth leaving scars
only love sweetened
hearts can unveil
love notes
a ritual to start the week
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
Patience, friends, we are
but human: bound
to pack and stack
each muddy brick
on our endless quest
toward the sky.
They leave our hands
weary, our feet
worn, but our hearts,
bellies and eyes
never check their reach.
Upward, we strive,
slowly molding impossible hopes
into our reality.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
The leaves are not the tree’s clothes
but its mouths, scarfing
up sun to inch ever closer
to what feeds them. The mountain
does not shroud itself in shrubs
out of shame, it shows itself —
a home left unlocked, daring
us to loot it. The smell of upturned soil is
a blessing, a thank you
for taking up the invitation laid
at our feet. Only we
felt the need to cover her
as we cover ourselves. Open up
my loves: let us in. Share
the letter your bones send to your skin.
Fold it into your palm and slip
it between my vertebrae, make me
lean in, inch ever closer
to what feeds me.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
your fire soothes like summer rain
my icy blood gushing
deluginous through gutters
deep inside me delusion
rises to my mind dumps its drowsy
steam into synapses burdens
their gaps with aplomb
emptied into puddles
and cleansed of portents
leaving only cascades of
potential pride
in its place to reign
love notes
a ritual to start the week
look in to look out for
yourself: find signs of yourself
radiating in others:
riches within their hearts expand
your heart into cracks
like gold to heal them:
and behold your soul
how it glows made whole
love notes
a ritual to start the week
The doors in the house only close
properly when summer
reaches peak heat and the air hangs
like a wet towel
around our necks. They click
into place, their mechanics catching
like old friends who haven’t chatted
in a minute
but still know how to fit
into each other’s breaths, still feel
the warmth in their embrace.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
Sun fills the sky and clouds fill my head,
angry thunder rumbling in my cheeks,
as lightning streaks down my throat.
My body is certain these spring blooms
seek nefarious ends belied by their delicacy.
Ah, azalea! Ah, peony! Ah, rose!
Your pinks ring my irises and your thorns
grow tracheal, sting my insides. Why yes,
I will dare to sniff once more.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
When some new refrain plucks
your shame-strings like you’re
a banjo at a hoedown — dance.
Don’t let the rows of steel chords
stretch into a thrumming prison
for one. Just two-step to center-floor
and heel-toe your fear away. Let it
drip like sweat from your brow.
Dab it with a bandana and hang it
from the back pocket of your Levi’s
like some signal of your particular
sensitivities to those who wish to
do-si-do.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
Dream a little. Dream
a lot for lots are not what they seem. Dream
eyes wide open to see what you could be. Dream
eyelashes into butterflies and dream
oceans into puddles. Dream
tears into sutures and dream
laughter into tourniquets, let them
stitch you up and keep you alive
when the world blows through you
and tears at your seams. Dream
movement into muscle. Dream
plans into performance. Dream
maybes into momentum and ever-building steam. Dream
moment after moment til they slow into lava flows. Dream
time into a forest and get lost among the trees. Dream
love into a meadow and meet the blossoms like bees. Dream
the petals. Dream
the pollen. Dream
the nectar into honey and honey into hive into home into hope
that your dreams keep us alive
a little longer to dream
one more time.
love notes
a ritual to start the week
Looming trunks and scrubby brush rush
by, a forest on its feet, marching. Arms
taken up into tangled branches wave
in the wind. Muddy bare feet grip
slippery flat stones tilting into brook’s edge
and cloud its cool, clear water. Woods ablaze
with action around us, we wait, shrieving
our soles of their tresspasses before
joining the trees in their crusade.
love notes
a ritual to start the week