Je m’appelle Lisa

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I neither got to visit Versailles
Nor know wanderlust’s calm at Gare de Bruges
That glory was one beat too far

Moulin Rouge commanded some checklist, foreign to me
And we’d “miles to go”
Topless beaches on the Med, and all….
Damned dogmas

But Kings and Conductors still summon me
For they heard my name
Nightly, I tell them
You’ve known no such power
And masterpiece
Such God-Speed
As me

So this suitcase sits at my bedside
Packed
With ink-pen and parchment
Pinafores and peace
Decreeing
Whistling
Ready

Tomorrow Leave

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I asked you then, come away

From pretending
From costume parties

To remove the mask
To wear your name proud

The name borne of your mother’s heart
The name I called you as a child

Remember who you truly are
Remember what you deeply love

Creatures, cars, cooking, calm
Comfort in my crazy arms

Leave behind the aged bones
Leave to find your first true home

I ask you now, come away

In the Echinacea

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A Cardinal, spying from the pow’r lines by my kitchen window, acts tempestuously

As if he cannot resist me

Truth be told, I’m fond of him, too

Remarkable as he is — less a vivid red than most, and volume missing in the tufts of his shaggy cone

I know the migration he’s been through, and he needs that

Unafraid to ask, I say, “What is it you want?”

His response…be still, my heart!

I won’t betray his confidence, but we see eye-to-eye

It’s the reason he finds himself landing in my backyard peach tree at every possible opportunity

Poking around in the Echinacea, for calm

Glad I give him refuge, I leave open the door

Talking with him like this, leaves me wanting more

Ketchup

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Every moment spent on edge
Feeling on the fringe
Shouting matches in our minds
Calm asks where we’ve been

Know there is a fix for this
Truly, there’s a path
Go to your knees, finally
Seek His face and ask

So Much Us

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Excitable
Calming songs

Morning grabbers
Midnite wanderers

Strangely enough
Far too much becoming more

Omnipresent
From somewhere else

Covered in that certain rust dust
Perfecto

Moving together
Are we ever

At Heart

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As a child, earnest
As a late-day water lily bloom
As a hopeless romantic

Thrive despite the shallow
Give the coolest shelter
Live to love and fight

To be free from such rules
To grow in the coming dark
To rise from it all each day

Still Be

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Stepped outside
It’s still enough
Breezeless
To allow me
My fragility

Impatiens still patient
Street lights still willing
At this hour
This darker season
Giving to me

Courage
Calm in my craze
Righted in this firmament
Glad for Sun and for Moon
Still

Clear

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Sugar, speak

Speak aloud to the ghosts
On this journey, with you from an infant thing

You know they know you
They’ll believe you

Have no fear
For it’s rest you’ll find
There
In them

And laughter, then silence
Finally

Look for me
Here
Speak

Bring us back to life