Magic

Magic hangs like droplets
on silken strands
around people
things

lockets, rings
music
the every day

it drips
splatters
transforming a normal patch of air
into rainbows

magic we create
spread
with love and prisms

kaleidoscopes of beauty
and greater meaning

Fragile Words

Hearts bubble
to lips and fingertips
scorch lungs
sizzle veins

words hang fragile
as morning mist
dawn threatening
to burn them away

but they linger
gather strength
in the darkness
broken by scattered lights

they become hard like diamonds
multifaceted
embroidered by experience and hope

Crystal Castle

I always keep a part of myself back

In case the crystal castle comes crashing down

I’ve been there too often

Surrounded by the beauty of the scene

Rainbows spread around me

As the sunset breaks light at my feet

Then behind me

You take a hammer to the wall

“I just don’t want to hurt you anymore”

You say

The walls vibrate

Shattering slowly

While I flee for my life

The castle comes down

The pieces

Jagged

Tear and destroy

Slice new patterns into my skin

Shining like diamonds as they hit the ground.

I am left on the shore

Scattered shards like ice behind me

Bleeding as I wait

The castle will be rebuilt.

Maybe with you.

Maybe with someone else.

It’s not all that hard to do

Once my scabs have formed into scars

I will start again

Maybe this time

I will build my castle of something stronger

Less liable to crack

At a tap

Or knock

Or maybe I will rebuild it just as before

And wait for it to come crashing back down. 

Pieces

Born of glass
we step
we leap
we shatter

scattered

we pick up
gather
carry on in pieces

3 words to melting point
we become
alloys of glass and steel
mosaics of who we were