Tomorrow, Butterfly

On frail wings
Spectacles of memories
Perhaps well suited for the pin
To mount up in some gallery
Go sailing far beyond my reach
But I should never wish it so
That beauty on this grander scale
Be found confined
By greedy man
Or turn of hand
As time, life, and love demand

Tomorrow then, my butterfly
If winded currents sweep you so
I will not keep you
No, not for trophies
Not for thirst to see your colors
Freedom owes itself to us
Your gilded wings deserve release
The slightest touch
Might hurt so much
For something there so precious made
So, to the breeze, I send you off

Tomorrow then, my butterfly
Today may be a time unkind
The sunset speaks
Upon your fragile form so sweet
Fluttering beyond my reach
But I can be
Content to know I held you close
And met you on this journey we
Were christened for
Before today was ever dreamed
Farewell, I hope you keep your wings

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Clouds I Packed

Fragments of the bridges we burned
In the charred grey haze
In the soft blue grass
My hand on your future
Your palm on my past

Little scraps of clouds I packed
In the zippers and pockets
Of the walls we moved
And the paint we peeled
For the dreams we drew
Under stark white dots
Oh, the skies we knew
Were

Bigger than the snowfall over those mountains
And bigger than the love all over these hills
Our sky was on fire
Our hearts were our needles
Our eyes were a compass
Our bodies unbound

Bigger than the words repainted from ancients
And bigger than door frames over this house
Our sky is on fire
Our blankets untorn
Our love is like water
Our bodies still warm

(sorry for the delay. I’ve been relocating and adjusting. Thank you for your patience)

Unaware

Come awake
You pretty little star
Surrogate
My angel, unaware
Speak to me
In languages of stare

Come alive
You precious little ward
To protect
My sentimental heart
Dream of me
In reoccurring parts

Come away
You unassuming saint
Separate
The channels of desire
Be with me
Awaiting by the fire

Come inside
You interwoven soul
Resurrect
In deepening resolve
Evermore
A paragon of love

Sometimes You Can See…

It isn’t all that often, but sometimes
You can see love
In tiny pinholes
Bleeding through a ebon sky in variable densities
Light
Ignited
Ancient
Caravanning the distance in waves
Predating the cracks in our fragile hearts
Washing upon celestial shores in swaths we call constellations
But we never really knew them
These eyes in the heaven are to faces unblinking
A glance by chance or divine
Falling across time
Onto a serendipitous second in which elements align
Providing oxygen to my tired mind down here
It isn’t very often, but sometimes
You can see God
Burnt through in the autumn hues of dying dreams
Shaken and piled up for sweeping
Where today’s decomposition becomes tomorrow’s fuel
To wake life where death stirs
Like children coming forth from sleep
It isn’t often, but sometimes
I think that centuries may just be unwitting catalysts
Love, launched long before the orbits breathed a full rotation
Locked in motion
Ancient beyond recognition
Struck here tonight because it was the only place it could go
And we are nothing new
Me and you
Just tiny allegories of immortality
Caught tightly
Spun lightly
And bundled up in woven threads of something
We did not create
Embodiments of unity even the stars do not comprehend
While bending arms of light to touch us
These broken compositions
These stolen notes
We have written in stone over the face of what we know
Are our epitaph
That
We love
And it comes with no permissions
Branded deep within a sky that casts no shadow, but is its own reason why
And so am I
So I decide
That if the sky makes no apology for light
Despite the blind eyes we bear
And if the stars believe the distance here is worth the weight of infinity
And if the pain of decomposing becomes the beauty of tomorrow’s bloom
Then I love you
And it must have been true
Before they wrote the first line of the first word
Or spoke of things like this
It isn’t often, but sometimes
The world moves
For small things
And life springs
From cracked dreams
Under the ancient eyes
In this ebon sky
Where, it isn’t often, but sometimes
You can see love

The Ink Is You

The ink is you
The blood, the love
The pain dipped in
Beneath my skin
The ink is you
Indelible
And I approve
Of every line
The ink is you
The brand I wear
Reminding me
Of all we are
The ink is you
Unfaded mark
My friend, my dear
My lovely scar

Adore

Streetlights play with shadows as pedestrians stroll under
Flickers stroke your hair and hover gently on the strands
I could watch for hours as the world keeps moving onward
Placidly content to hold my universe in hand

Storefronts sell their fancies catching glances from the children
Snowflakes grace the fabric of your sweater as we stroll
Hands entwined so I can keep you safely near me always
Hats and furs like armor in our fight to thwart the cold

Have I ever told you
How much I adore you
How much I am warmed to know that you care
Have I ever mentioned
You have my attention
I’m pleasantly caught in the heat of your stare

Crystals form in corners of the windows through the city
Taxis run like blood cells through the arteries of town
All the decorations and the lights aren’t half as pretty
As the silhouette you cast like magic on the ground

All the presents pale beside the gift of being with you
All the vendors fail to place a price upon your love
Every time you smile I think the moon gets slightly larger
Glowing like a dream and you are what i’m dreaming of

Have I ever told you
How much I adore you
How I’d stop the world if it was what I had to do

Have I ever mentioned
You have my full attention
Totally transfixed and wanting nothing else but you

When I Get Tired Of You

When I get tired of you
The leaves on the trees will have died
All the flowers have folded
And the forest have withered and dried

When I get tired of you
Singers will run out of songs
Lovers will have no more passion
Streets will be rid of their throngs

When I get tired of you
Books will be blank without words
Seasons will cease from their turning
Dawn will be failing to stir

When I get tired of you
The sun will have melted away
Earth will be frozen and barren
And colors all faded to gray

When I get tired of you
The stars will have burnt out their light
The heavens plunged deep into darkness
And angels have long lost their sight

When I get tired of you
My body will lay without motion
My heart will be still in it’s beating
My mind be devoid of devotion

When I get tired of you
Time will have slowed to a stand
All of the elements shattered
God lost the strength in his hand

When I get tired of you
No one will be there to see
Because I can’t get tired of you
So please don’t get tired of me

Marionette

Tugged from the box where her wrappings protect her
Carefully placed on the stage
Strings on the joints that will make her an actor
Fit for the part she will play

It’s a clever surprise
It’s a perfect charade
Not a soul would suspect
All the nights she has cried
With this sturdy disguise
And a smile that won’t fade
She is dancing in time
But she’s empty inside

Held up by ribbons and strings to support her
Well rehearsed lines and replies
Looking so much like the girl they have ordered
But for those colorless eyes

It’s a masterful turn
It’s a desperate act
To protect what is left
Of a magical life
But she packs it away
When she exits the back
And the smiles are gone
When she’s down for the night

Little marionette, you don’t have to pretend
You were made without strings
You were born into tears
Little marionette, you have color and skin
You can mount up with wings
You are stronger than fear
Little marionette, let the audience wait
They can come back again
You don’t have to perform
Little marionette, it is never too late
If you really must dance
Would you dance in my arms?

Quite Warm

I found you
Arms pulling knees in to shield off the dark
I found you
Crippled and broken–collapsed on the wall
I found you
Clutching your chest in a bid for your heart

I said “there you are, love”
You said “this isn’t me”
Something happened out there in the silence

I said “come to me, love”
You said “I cannot breathe”
All these bones have been crushed from the violence

I found you
Wounded and lost with those marks on your back
I found you
Cold and abandoned with shivering hands
I found you
Shrinking away from the thought of attack

I said “trust me, my dear”
You said “I cannot move”
In the corner where you had retreated

I said “do not be scared”
You said “what can I do?”
With the strength in your muscles depleted

I found you
Helpless and cold on the untidied floor
I took you
Up in my arms from the shadows below
I told you
“I will not leave you. You needn’t cry more”

“I have a heart that could keep you quite warm”

Common Tongue

In the language of the common tongue
We weave a strange uncommon tale
In the quiet of a midnight moon
We craft an everlasting spell
In the skin of frail and mortal life
We court an immortality
In the shadow of a thousand lies
We challenge what the truth might be
In the vacancy of happiness
We forge a kind of solitude
In the famine of our ignorance
We innovate a better food
In the winter of Indifference
We light the passion of our flames
In the language of the common tongue
We make ourselves uncommon names

Proclamation

A proclamation lies, un-penned
Within a shadowed corridor
Abandoned there, for lack of ink
Or, possibly, for lack of strength
And yet the truth has never dimmed
The arteries–the rushing blood
Can never cleanse the lasting mark
You own upon my crimson heart
And I, for this, so wish I knew
Some fitting language to assault
Or vessel to translate the pulse
Of all the things we hold in us

A proclamation lies, un-penned
Deserving light, but finding none
And I, for one, would like to write
The way I feel for you tonight
But since I cannot do so yet
I simply thought the evidence
Deserved to be remembered here
Until we learn to speak it clear
When life affords a better chance
These chambers with their hidden dams
Will burst apart–their secrets share
To show that you were always there

Kinetic Pantomime

We, in kinetic pantomime
Soaking rustic sunsets
Through dreamlike pores
Are evermore
And never were

We, in fused schisms
With effortless grace
Bequeathed by flames
Are tempered steel
And feather down

We, in double helix
Breathe rainbows into love
Like winter storms
Between despair
And open air

Closest

Firelight eyes inset with oceans
Turbulent with quests unspoken
Smoldering as sleep attempts to
Douse the blaze and creep within you

Drowning in the chaos of a torn and broken world
Like the closest thing to heaven that the earth may ever hold
Cradled in the moment we were effortlessly curled
Into pretty little bundles–we were burning up like candles

Ravenous hearts with words unspoken
Chancy glances passed and stolen
Overbold and wildly woven
So in love, but love was broken

Wonderful Mess

We are all so perfect
So perfectly we’re flawed
Thoughts left unattended
Clothes left in the hall

We are all so tidy
So organized, we are
Emotions stuffed in boxes
In the backseat of our car

We are all so stable
Our feelings never stick
Honest, like a photo
Straight up like politics

We are all so certain
We speculate and guess
Twisted up together
We lose track of all the rest

We are so attentive
We can’t recall a thing
Scatterbrained and brilliant
Consistently insane

We are all so purposed
Accidentally in love
Our messes are wonderful
And we’re never cleaning up

Rubicon

She sends me photographs
She writes on the back
The date and a short description

I send her paper hearts
And orphan thoughts
The world never paid attention

We danced to a tune we didn’t know
With eyes like a prophecy and I
Could never have seen the way we’d go
But I would have danced it anyway

She tells me she never wants to leave
I promise to take her by my side
Regardless of things we couldn’t see
I would have danced it anyway

We separate a place
Where we can be safe
Away from our own devices

We went too far to turn
With little concern
For all of these strange surprised

We danced to a tune we didn’t know
With eyes like a prophecy and I
Could never have seen the way we’d go
But I would have danced it anyway

She tells me she never wants to leave
I promise to take her by my side
Regardless of things we couldn’t see
I would have danced it anyway

Haptic Incantations

Furtive whispers pass like notes
An opus multifaceted
Performed on strings of skin and dreams
A minuet in aqueous
As danced across your gilded throat

Haptic incantations spoke
Enchantments on a willing form
The anthems rise behind your eyes
And up from darkened depths they float
Like melodies by passion wrote

Stroke of Brilliance

S-s-s-s-sorry but
I’m already a tiny bit
Unscrupulous and crazy
If you wonder why I’m maybe
Just a step or two from sanity
It’s tragedy and vanity
A parody of living
In a caveat humanity

I could have been an actor
In a comedy of errors
But my flaws were too apparent
And too flaw-like to be errant
So I turned into a painter
With a penchant for the distant
Looking for a stroke of brilliance
But my lines are incoherent

Espial

To the dark
To the drifting swaths of formless shade
A shape is born
Born from vision shifting–that darting eye from light to night
In faint image so fair
I see you
For shadows, a host you have become
But not like parasites, they feed
For comfort
To you they cling and lay
No better shape is found
In this celestial pool. I decree
A master of the bed on which you lie
That all things large or small may to you concede that their beauty cannot match you
Nor can I
To look
If but in shadow
On your face as still you sleep
No more a lovely picture could a thousand artists paint
Fear not, my darling
I see you
I hold no thing above your thought
Keep no treasure more of worth
I have no need for else in life
But to know that you are mine
Take your rest
Stir when ready
Wake when sated
I will watch you here in shade
As eyes adjust and light subsides
Until tomorrow when you wake
I watch you here and think
There is no grander site
Than you
In day
Or else in night

Strange Transmission

D33p N2 ur 3y3s
1 C st^rs; 1 C l1ghts
D33p BN3^th ur gl^nc3
1 C h*p3; 1 C ch^nc3
D33p NS1d3 ur ❤
1 ^m b*und; 1 ^m p^rt
D33p w1th1n ur l*v3
1 ^m *n3; 1 ^m h*m3

Armored For The Moon

Armored for the moon, we are
An arbitrary tercet
Casting blatant disregard
Across the face of gravity
Cavalier for passion
In a reckless sort of fashion
Trading atmosphere for purer air
To fuel our fantasies

Cradled for the night, we were
A perfect convalescence
Woven fingers under blankets
We assaulted northern lights
Crafted after seriphs
Vaguely odd and plainly careless
Making love and taking dares, we made
Our memories in the night

Overlaid with grace, we are
An everlasting circle
In an orbit better set
Than all the dreams to come behind
Burning up on entry
Like a star on course for centuries
We set our mark to heaven
And our love became divine