Late Leaf

I fall
a late leaf onto crisp snow
skating across the ice
dancing on the wind

the color of flame
edged with black
capturing last colors
before the white embrace

I will not last
in this world of slush and snow
frozen, crushed

for seconds
or minutes
I exist

I fly
defying gravity
before frost takes me

Surgery

I tried surgery to get you out
Plucked you like slivers from my skin
but you were deeper

Bumps here, there
belying what lay beneath

Foreign bodies wound
so tightly in my flesh it was
hard to say where they
began and ended

I cut them out myself
burned the pieces
there was no one to do it for me

deeper still
You were in my heart

And how could I take you from there?

My heart learned to beat
around you
It could not function now on
its own

The Lock in Light

All the rest are shadows
they live inside my heart
they eat up hope
pull wishes from stars

they are the ones who keep me quiet
keep me less
keep me kept

they represent the ones who left
the betrayers
heartbreakers
the destroyers

they are locked behind bars of light
so that sunshine is separated from sorrow

till darkness falls

it breaks the prison doors
it sets all the rest free
spilling them into my would be brightest corners

coaxing out most broken memories
possibilities, become probabilities
rock solid hopes
reduced to ash

till sunrise brings the lock in light
absences are filled
broken things are put away
protected from all the rest
by all that is, all that are, all that will be.

Fall Formals

The sun poured pigment
deep down into the earth
in the spring

let it ferment
and deepen through the heat of the summer

till finally
the roots pushed deep

bringing the crimson to the leaves
the butter yellow
obsidian black

putting on their best clothes
to brighten the wet days

drenching the world in color one last time
before white fills their mantles
and frost gilds their branches

Until She was Nothing

You fell in love with a sunburned girl
eyes peaking out at you
through burned peeling skin

You loved her anyway

You fell in love in four days
told her she was lovely
beautiful in her agony

You told her she was perfect

You fell in love in ignorance
innocence
to all her shattered scars

You told her she was your everything

You fell in love with her heartbeat
as beat by beat
her secrets came out

You fell for her forever

Until love wasn't enough
until perfect wasn't enough
until everything, wasn't enough

until one week erased her from your heart

until she was nothing.

Lightning Strike

It's a volatile conversation
between heaven and earth
damage
beauty

messages are fleeting
transfer of energy
Earth releasing to sky what it can't
hold anymore

interception distorts
turning sparks and magic
to ash
char

so we watch
sheltered
just for a glimpse
a flash of insight

Repair of the Brokenhearted

I took my heart out for him tonight
a pitiful ball of cloth wrapped around glass pieces
I unwrapped it without a word
letting the pieces fall helter skelter into the usual mess

I let him look me in my eyes
when he took the pieces in his hands
let him read the grooves and sharp edges
in the lines on my face
matching pieces to the damage in my skin

He held my gaze
slipping pieces into new patterns
locking them in place

He didn't hurry
patient in this impossible puzzle
He read the tear tracks
Paused when sitting was all I could bear

Until he handed the last piece to me

Let me find a place for it
before taking my beautiful new heart
wrapping it too tenderly for words
in the ragged old cloth

He handed it back
but didn't walk away.

First Timers

To the Moab Children (Jordan, MerriLyn, Kyle, Latesha)

Everything was beauty
Sagebrush to sand
Earth soaring to sky in formation

We drank in the sights
pouring it deep so it couldn't seep away
Beauty hard edged with heat and pain

We were pushing
ourselves, our limits
each other

We hiked from arch to arch
red dust tattooed into our skin
packing everything in moments

Sudden reality
striking us to our core
singing notes we'd never sung

We listened to stories
stories in sand
blown away and muddled by morning

We listened to the rocks
drenched in culture
in us

We left the rocks behind
Stories
soaked into our hearts

Red rock returning us home
Best Friends Ever
To the beauty of every day

Stardust and Snowflakes

We are stardust
snowflakes of existence
impossibilities wrapped in skin
bursting in light
we go out in flashes
live in moments
leaving endless songs
imprints on the windows
etches in history
embrace the seconds
drink it all in
because, we are snowflakes
bursting in
light

Named

I wanted a secret name
one that whispers of glory and fame
A name of destiny
honor won
worthy of great deeds
in sonnets sung

a secret name known only to me
a name to show me all I could be
a warrior and hero of old,
a noble and great one,
fearless and bold

a name that is strong and made of light
a name that remembers to never give up the fight.

Corked Bottles

I am a corked bottle
Uncap and hear the pop
dust clings
clouding the glass

Dip me
Drown me in starlit waves
wash me out
clear my clouds

Till I am shining
sparkling

close me up
Keep me Safe
So that I stay filled with light

Trained to Silence

For MerriLyn and the conversation we had a few days ago

They tell me to speak
to share my thoughts
but I have been trained to silence

to listen to secrets
and keep my own

I have been trained
unanswered questions
or questions unreturned

I keep my thoughts to myself
Listen to you chatter on

so instead of speaking
silence is my trademark

trained too well
you'll have to pry the words from my
iron bars from off my window
one by one

Secret Wishes

Delicate as ice casing snow
held tight
close to beating hearts

far enough away that the heat
won't melt them

close enough that shrapnel will lodge
if they explode

We whisper to them

Tiny lights like distant stars
they glow

Holding us together when
dreams break

Showing us a way we didn't hope for
before

New Year Poem

(For MerriLyn)

We are new beings
born on sparkles that drift down
from stars

We break from what we were
amid the bang of pots and pans
the toasts of cider

we whisper oaths
pledges of change

We wake with the dawn of a year
new and sparkling
beings