DEATH MOCKERY

I was spawned in death on earth

Born with a heart that births pain

And I have lived all day long alone

My chest is a furnace and my heart is the fire

The world feeds me coal and bellows cries in this pit

Screaming tongues of flames in my frame

Charring my bones and singeing my flesh

I cough out the ashes and choke on the embers

Yet my soul is a spring, streams into steam

What life is left over is kindling an alter.

The past ashes stored in my present urn

Turn out not to be vases but cisterns of water

I thought the flames scorched my cornea and tunneled my vision

When really a blanket of water clouded my sight

While I am submerged six feet under, plundering deep

Torrent, flood, flash, rain

And then I realize the coals aren’t rocks,

They’re seeds and the flames are trees

Now I forgot to breathe!

Anchored to what ground I can’t find, I swim

Limbless, limp, I’m crying a wimp 

But the tears aren’t mine and the walls are skin

The stern of the boat (my impending death)

Is flint that's fluttering, white curtains in light

Gasping, air, open, breeze

Heaven’s doors break open and my heart comes alive

Life.

I’m alive and the fire’s a furnace

Refining my sword and welding my bones

These flames are my fuel, ignition for mission

I laugh at the fighters and extinguish their lighters

I shout, “how can your flames wield power

When you cannot sting this strong tower?” 

ISAIAH 50

Adultery is my biggest crime

I sleep on a deathbed and call it my haven 

When it puts me miles further from heaven

I hide in the rose bushes and get caught in the thorns

Unable to follow and unable to see

To marvel in awe of the awesome seven seas

Asleep in my infidelity in dreams that I hate

I am wrapped in your swaddling clothes, a corpse in my grave

And I am too far under to hear your instruction

So I’ll let this casket be my destruction 

To shield me from the spit of the crowd that

Waters the roots of the roses above me

I am dying a widow and killing another

As I leave my loyalty for liminal recess

Depressing deeper into deafening depths 
While now I hear you cry, “My bride I envy your life”

A SABBATICAL FROM THE RHYME 

We used to be friends that traveled,

Up the mountains and across the plains,

Flying with planes,

Sometimes we cried together,

Me sharing with him and

Him hearing from me,

Or we’d laugh together,

A joke in jest or quick quibble,

Harmless tonight, harmful tomorrow

I remember the coffee we drank,

The forts we built at night

When we stayed up far too late

While I would try my hand at cursive,

He would cross the t’s and

I would dot the i’s

My cursor would blink,

Vehemently holding a cup called “speech” 

While I was too tongue-tied to read between the lines,

Even the talks that we had,

When he’d sort and file my passion

Into what we thought were sound arguments

All became Webster’s words not mine,

And I can’t remember if I created him,

Or if he made me up

But I know we can’t make up

I need a break from his (kind) gestures

So that I won’t be forced under rhythmic pressures.

ECHO WOOD

My heart is a violin

It is soft when it’s quiet

It is loud when it’s fierce

It is a part among many

It is strung to be plucked

But she didn’t use the bow 

She didn’t play along

She stripped it of its roots

And cracked the hollow bark

And the song wanted to be played

The chorus wanted to be sung

But she just left it there

Infinitely mute

Paused

Forever

GIANTS 

I walk alongside giants

A path amongst the tallest

With those whose 

Torches burn the brightest

The ones whose

Arms stretch the farthest.

I walk alongside giants

And fear I’ll be found out

Or smothered in their goodness

Or silenced by their shouts 

Or caught up in their greatness

That I miss the places we go.

I walk alongside giants

In halls amongst the highest

Where trees overwhelm us

Stars overshadow us

Great suns shine upon us

While together we walk.

And I have grown amidst the crowd

And I’m a leader of the path.