Stepping Stone

You see that empty garden?
Do you see that stepping stone?
the one that is broken
shining from feet that walked on top

Do you see that stout woman?
the flowers surrounded by weeds?
she is the caretaker
pulling weeds and stepping on broken stone day by day

no one knows that stone is broken
no one sees the fissure
they walk through to see the garden
to see the indian paintbrush, lilacs, lilies

They see white roses, carnations, snapdragons
they see sunlight bouncing off dewdrops
streams, spiderwebs
silver trails from snails

But no one sees the broken stone
Except You.

You came to the garden on a cloudy day
flowers drenched in fallen rain
there was no sunlight to pull out the color
just damp and cold, forcing You to hunch your shoulders

watch your step

on a day like that
Broken stones stand out

You will not tell the caretaker

You will pause, stoop down to feel the break
You will come back
You will see the stepping stone

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