Golden Age

What do you call that Far East Asian ancient sailboat?

The one that’s always amber-orange and silhouetted, multiple masts

Sailing slowly but deliberately to anywhere but here

Help me because I can’t think

What, with all the noise in my head, contemplating your silence

Your confident cowardice

What do you call it

I want to hitch a ride to anywhere but here

Treasure?

No — what do you call it?

X Y Zenith

Just this one more line
Just this one more time
But I would have drowned

If you’d meant to change
If it were the day
Strength you should have found

Boundaries are most real
Boundaries helped me heal
Cross none sacred ground

Another Word For Coward

Cat and mouse throughout my dreams
At play, we
I don’t win

Pedigreed, you chose, not me — then you began again

The poor girl of your youth
I am
Too much proof of your roots

Together nevermore, old friend — how urban lights pollute

Forever Indigo

I was warned of the Yellow

The Yellow from the City

I liked its light, so

I defended it
Believed the best of it
Allowed it into my home, my bed
My sinew

I favored it
Fed it
Berries

I started to starve

Courageous, I asked for respect
Yellow, it fled

We stay silent now, Yellow and I

I was warned

But I still believe the best
For I’m forever Indigo

Boy Upon The Hill

Nothing’s fitting

Not the double barrel shotgun you placed against my heart
Not your blindfold upon me anymore
Nor your murderous silence

I’ve outgrown your cowardice
The singe of alone you always left me is fading away

But the boy you killed, I’ll live with daily
Stolen from me, the memory gorgeous

The boy upon the hill calling me
Kissing me
After some schoolbell tolled

All these decades, still

Darlin’ Dear

When I wronged her months ago
She spoke to my calamity
With kindness
With humility
To her surprise, she empowered me

My ego now in overdrive
We’d make the Thousand Mile Drive
And I’d stay silent, in my self-defense
And punish her for her offense
Of trusting me with honesty

She wanted what I’d promised us
My best from me

Instead I killed her, once back then
Plus each day since
Her, my best friend

Her ghost grieves to this very day
But I am okay
I walked away