Jack Frost

From the first bite of ice
you can feel it spread
pumping easily through a sharded heart

Jack will take your hand
let you learn numbness
the sting of the ice

He'll slow it all down for you
until the ice on the lakes
and rivers
become mirrors

reflecting you back
icicles become prescription lenses

A frozen wasteland
becomes a thousand diamonds
coating trees

this is not death
this is life purified

Jack will take it slow
step
by step
hand in hand

East and West

I am West
Settings, endings

You are East
Risings, beginnings

We are always reaching
Stretching toward
Away

A circle
Void of beginnings and endings
Filling the in between.

Break the Game

Love happens when the game breaks
When we stop worrying about being desperate
safe enough to admit we need more than ourselves
the Rulebook goes out the window

We fly
because gravity breaks
logic fails

We surrender to someone we don't know
hand over the keys to our glass hearts


Don't look back
Don't regret

We love
we cry
we fall
but we never hit the ground.

Black Hole Heart

Just a tugging now
and then

Yearning and sighing
I keep it locked in my chest
keep it from spreading
to tingling fingertips

I keep it from tugging the fabric in
collapsing my soul like a black hole
dense and heavy

Inescapable

Just a mini star
frozen and dying
locked up tight
inside my ribcage

Veil of Tears

I have woven my veil
tear by tear
it shields me,
shapes me
clarified
through my sorrows

Doubter's Prayer

Rescue me
from my fantasies

take from me
what I think I want
give to me
what I really want

lace my dreams
in moonlight
blind my fears
in hope

until fantasies
realities
and I've burned
all my doubts

Masterpiece in Progress

I am unfinished
added to each day
by some
taken away
by others

you can see
the way I smile a little wider
glow, just slightly brighter

you've added to the measure of me
made me more who I am
more who I want to be

you listen to me
and make me smile
you make me feel
like I'm worthwhile

my heart grows
fills me chest
leaving little room
for even breath

with each step
in each day
I feel cherished
loved
in a unique way

I am becoming more
than I thought I could
(realistically)
be

Thank you for adding to
not taking away from
me

Running Away

Spine to spine
close, connected
Heading separate ways

heart pounding
shallow breaths
anger rising in an empty chest

wait 3 seconds
ignore
 breathe

laugh too hard
smile too wide
squint away disappointment

breathe in steel
set your jaw

legs start pumping
everything falls away

don't focus
don't think

run
fake it

Secrets

I keep my secrets in ink
black so deep
they could never betray me

yet,
I'm afraid it's not enough
I add more secrets
crowd them together
till they become inseparably connected

there is danger here
touch one
you touch them all

they become my fatal flaw
one drop
enough to blacken a page
seeping to the edges
revealing too much

what was I thinking?
ink could never have hidden me
what else could
distill me into a word

Drive from Idaho Falls to West Jordan at Midnight

Stars drip through the clouds
pin pricks of light
peeking through misty lace curtains

black behind us
black ahead
rain slicked streets

silence against the mountains
shadow from crest to crest
we are in the valley of the night

darkness
to appreciate the light

4000 Steps to Freedom

Inspired by Kip

Freedom is full of sweat
Heat
Hair and clothes so hot that we seem to roast in our skin

Freedom is full of aches
in arms
legs
and feet
as we pound it out to the finish line

Yes, Freedom is full of pain
tiring work
past faces
and bodies on the sidelines

but, Freedom is also full of joy
faces breaking in smiles
voices cracking in celebration
as we glory in choice and agency

We walked 4000 steps
a small sacrifice
to celebrate the freedom
won for us
on the backs of unknown names

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

Words

Hearts bubble
to lips and fingertips
scorch lungs
sizzle veins

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

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

they become hard like diamonds
multifaceted
embroidered by
experience and hope

Light Storm

Light cracks through the sky
pressure building
against orange midnight clouds
thunder snaps

35 seconds
rain pours
heavy, fast

the light show ends
water running to the streets
aftermath the only evidence
that lightning ever struck

Carry me into the night
pick up these shredded pieces
I am so delicate

Be gentle
Wrap up my sorrow
in darkness

I am so weary
Broken
beyond repair

so carry me
into the night
and lay me down
in sweet dark

Fleeting Glory

This one is for my Grandpas, and all those who serve and have served our country


The glory is fleeting
the wounds are fresh
when wings come rushing
to help us greet death

We fought their fights
we lived their dreams
hidden were nightmares
pretended by kings

The pain is lasting
transformed by our grief
we go through life running
seeking relief

sometimes we find it
a salve for our scars
sometimes we keep sewing
our tattered hearts

Whether we die
clinging to life
or meet death sweetly
embracing the light
there is no denying
how our paths intersected
and were broken by strife

Heavy Hearts

Some heavy hearts
are hard to break
they hold fast to trees
when winds blow and shake

Until just the right tug
the perfect caress
they fall into open hands
they fall into distress

Gentle hands
carry them away
lay them gently
amongst the lilies as they sway

but gentle hands
do not remain so
they pick up hearts
and ready to throw

the heavy hearts
were hard to break
now are riddled with holes
and wrenching ache

The Depth of a Tear

I would have counted them
as they slid away
counted the hurt
that each represented

they represent bitterness
valleys of pain
Hundreds of trees
dripping

rivers flowing in their roots
shallow
deep

flowers watered in sorrow
canyons carved of pain

a concrete place to grieve
curtained to sunshine
by the misting breeze

but edged by
oceans
soaked in sunshine
filled with thousands
billions of teardrops

My Very Last Night As Me

The night sky inked, ready to stamp its stars onto the earth
I lay on the cold ground, feeling the wind sweep across me
I knew that this was to be my last night, my very last as me

The earth was slowly creeping over me, like Ants gathering to a hill
My hands were slowly disappearing, my toes already gone
I smiled as the earth gathered me slowly to her.

The dirt filled my eyes, dotting out the stars with blackness
drop by drop, fear filled my heart.
This was my last, my very last night as me.

The night was gone, I was completely encased in dust
I could feel the ground heating around me, pushing in against me.
My eyes widened, searching for some light, some color in the black.

The silence was building, filling my ears
my heart racing, becoming a whisper at the back of my mind
though I knew, I couldn't quite accept that this was my last night, my very last night as me.

The bits of minerals and fragments of rocks shoved me deeper
it pushed my breath from my chest, lungs flattening against my back
the fear suffused with excitement, bubbling up through the cracks of my shattered soul.

the time had come, the earth had done its job
the heart beat of the earth pounded on my back, pushing me up
the last night was almost over, my very last night as me.

I burst through the surface, the earth melting away like butter
the sunshine replaced the black
illuminating the ocean of grass surrounding Me

The sun coats my skin, reflecting back to the world around Me
I glance back at the divot in the earth, night still gathered in the corners
it contains the only remnants of my very last night, my last night as me.

I let the air rush into My lungs, the smell of sunshine and roses
a mirror hangs shining in the air and I glimpse the reflection of Me
This is the Me I was meant to be.

I can see the changes the night has made
Cloaked in white, dark hair shining, eyes blazing bright.
Purified, perfected by the blackness of the earth and night.

Flutterbies

Flutter follows flutter
roaming and returning
twisting in spirals
of color

flowing with the breeze
separate
and one

returning to the color
amid the vast, dead grass
happy little swirls
returning
always returning

Sky Facination

You see the sky differently
you look up and see wonder
pluck out the stripes of color
entranced by the liquid copper
the waves of violet purple
splashing rampant across the pale blue screen

each second matters
as it morphs from one scene to another
the silent beauty
unique as lip prints on the window pane
each performance showing only once.

You hold the sight sacred
a whispered message of love
from the bigger picture

Reminder that shattered lights
like shattered dreams
hold beauty.