Storming In

I was that storm

that swept through last night

upended your world

unearthing all that was

in my gusting

I ruffled your hair

while riffling unabashedly

the tendrils of your soul

I whirled away

seedlinged doubt

dispersed dusted bunnies

of languishing ennui

I blasted past defenses

left you breathless

quiescent and wasted

in a balmy kind of calm

I poured upon your pores

running rivulets

between your lies

and universal truths

in my deluge

I quenched your thirst

while dousing in perpetuity

all your raging fires

I swirled away

careworn etchings

washed out ill-used notions

of staid propriety

I swamped status quo

left you gasping

engulfed and drifting

in the waves of my wake

 

Mirroring

windows watch

from under water

they refract murky offing

obscured under tranquility

in flat-paned blankness

future hide and seeks

dark-eyed hollows

haunt retrospectively

among the polished smoothings

swim shards of apocalyptic

non-apologetic apoplectic

dissembled anarchy

Evensong

the rain cannot decide

its mood tonight

it patters slow and steady

thrums with increasing tenor

cracks open the heavens

now and again

for emphasis

in all its iterations

it soothes rabid souls

crumbles outrage and insanity

in splash and crash and roll

Dreamt Invitation

Let’s meet for coffee, shall we?

 

I’ll be the one sipping

a blended oxymoron

of weary resignation

with drizzled half-skim

avid advocacy

sugar sprinkled

of frothy futile hopes

 

You’ll know me by the tilt

of my eloquent anguish

and the haunting lilt

in my punned gibberish

 

I’ll know you by the volumes

you carry in your eyes

dust-jacketed to cherish

shiny with repeated caressings

 

We’ll talk about the weather

in the dissection of a cloud

we’ll unveil a thousand

Pharaohed secrets

of wealth and majesty

 

Let’s meet in the park and walk.

 

I’ll be the wilted

hot-house orchid

hybrid hearty with saguaro

stubbornly standing tall

 

You’ll know me by

my fuschiaed veil

of sinuous chagrin

hidden amongst

my tresses nonchalant

 

I’ll know you by the myriad

hearts you swaddle in your ears

birthing and re-birthing

with every tortured listen

to convoluted tales

 

We can analyze a movie

neither one of us has seen

in the sham review

we reverently screen

Amazonian peace and durability

 

Let’s meet and drink a toast

 

We’ll savor a buttered melon sip

to all the yous I am.

 

We’ll relish a foamy-headed swallow

of all the mes you’ll be.

 

We’ll revel in a stiff spirited swig

to all the us-es no one

will ever ever see.

 

 

(photo: mine)

Again with the onions

it would be so much easier

if this was an onion

I would find the most razory knife

in the history of knives

slice, chop, dice

mince until

the pain liquifies

and tears release

their asphyxiating chokehold

 

it’s not an onion

it makes an onion

look like a simple

two dimensional

sunny yellow

smiley face sticker

 

it’s a whirling

dementorish

vortex of soul suck

 

the daggers of my anger

whetted on how

you disappeared me

from the ranks of humanity

clash steel on steel

clanging against your rage

fired by anguish

fueled in answers

you made up -horrendous-

to questions

you refuse to ask

 

silent battle

to psychic death

across months and miles

vaporizes –

poofed to cinders

of strangling guilt

by peripheral glimpse

across the room

 

you stand against

the wall evading

the mustard gas

of my presence

you talk to him

who you despise

spoke of in the

vilest epithets

now preferable

to acknowledging me

 

you are chewing on

the inside of your lip

unaware that you do

the tell of turmoil

you would never tell

how many times

did I ask what

was wrong?

how far did

you push me away

until I strayed?

 

set of your jaw

angle of your wrist

telegraphing epics

agonies unresolved

engulf me suffocating

amongst tornadic

self-recrimination

 

somehow I’ve learned

to live without

breathing

my breath is

back against the wall

stiffly held

 

tears torment

with mis-timing

“hi, it’s time to cry now

who cares you’re at work”

swallow and stuff

duty carries on

 

maybe I need to

buy some onions

sharpen my knives

maybe then tears

will cease their

stranglehold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grief (or Global Warming)

icebergs cascade chunks

tsunami swamps existence

Menage a Trois with Demons and Kittens

absent warning

no whistles, bells or sirens

they catapult you

through a raging firestorm

slam you into stone ramparts

you slide, noodling

down jagged wall

Wile E Coyote reeling

bruised and battered, alive

they build gator-infested moats

across which you creak

tiptoeing a crickety drawbridge

in breathless quest

of ephemeral treasure

they carom you, dizzying

to Everestial peaks

where you commune with Buddha

subliminally

they drown you, dredging

humanity’s sifting bottom

of decaying depravity

dangling reprieve, tantalizing

they tattoo themselves

double-helixed among your DNA

tonguing your undiscoverable

cortical crevices

conceding the logical

ecstasy of lobotomy

in desultory slices

they strip you skinless

to bloodied bones

with tacit accolades

in light-fingered seduction

they melt clothes away

you swim beatifically

defenseless among anemones

in the kiss of a lightening jolt

they careen you

from shock and awe

to ooohhh and awwwww

my words weave power

I vow to wield them

judiciously

Faces, Decontextualized

episodically

faces from the past

(when she was a whole person,

not this brightly colored

amiable hologram)

stumble upon

her

hidden in plain sight

inadvertently blasting

gashes

in her composure

 

she swallows the panic

imagined awkwarding

shrugs imperceptibly

shouldering back

shifting ever-present

cloak of shame

 

brightly, uncued

“how may I help you?”

 

astute, registers

lack of recognition

 

in dementia clouded eyes

a faint flicker

can’t see past

the internal cumulus

to place her

momentary relief

hastily chased

by crushing sorrow

and humble gratitude

 

her fate, at least

has reversibility

 

clear-eyed interloper

assumes any

twinge of familiarity

setting abides

 

she is practiced at this

pretending she wasn’t

witness to

someone’s darkest hours

 

superficiality managed

she sighs relief

gratified to note

evident functionality

vestiges of her efforts

beneficial

Other-ing

Disastrous recipe:

label, judge

cast out

Forgiveness

priceless gift

bearer devalued

recipient refused