Driving yesterday, Friday
Suddenly, my periphery
I saw you
You saw me — singing, maybe
Our worlds, long since finished colliding
We, continued
I singing, still
“Why are you alone?”
The music sneaked up on me to ask
Caught me off guard
My voice was in another world
Singing of a lover’s soul
So I sang soul music to explain
Loud, because of my soul’s pain
You’ve bored me
Made me headachy
Your hostility
Posing as humid tranquility
Asking here anonymously
What everyone else, unafraid to make themselves known
Already knows
But I answer thee
I’m still fit to garden and be poetry
Though you’ve pained me
A pain in my ass, a pain in my joints
Merely temporarily
Creeping, wrinkled, you’ll continue
Pettily
I’ll arrive on rain
That I’ll sooner quench your pain
As a love letter
You, the junk
The addiction
The smack to my very well-being
The contraband to my no-pain-and-suffering-of-sentients policy
I, the chosen one
Queened for just such a time as this
Dignified, decree you
Sacrificed, nonetheless
Original thought credit: “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” -Esther 4:14
Wondering how I am passing the time?
Living down your calamity, I
Why?
How dare declare it, you
Love?
Stealing songs as promises
Recall?
The rest of my life, and what am I doing?
These shoes fit me painfully perfect, I’ve learned
So I walk in them willingly
The right height for to carry me
I keep watch above the clouds and toes tied to Mother Earth
My spirit bird, a Phoenix
Mythical and real
Charred from technicolor determination
To fly at all times toward the truth
To flit back and forth from fire to firmament
Nothing less tragic
Than unintentional pain
From speaking the truth
And when life hurts hard
Decide to soften your eyes
Choose a hope-filled heart
God, there was such pain
Constant
Bombardment
The love of a lifetime toppling as the city wall
A series of shofar blasts heralding not justice and courage, but cruelty those years
These years, I tilt my head hoping to drain the ringing and echoing from these ears
All an image or impression away — the mountains, the oceans, and desert sands steal me back
Or a wedding song
A life that escapes me, a pain impossible to escape
