Ol’ Blues Man

He spoke to me only through the music we shared
The pain was evident in his eyes
The weariness was etched with every line on his face
His fingers strummed and sifted through my memories

I couldn’t let him down
We couldn’t let the stony silence win
So I started to sing
I felt my voice take over the room even softly they could feel it in the back
While he opened his eyes for the first time and saw me and we moved together through the blues
We traveled through some craggy slopes
All that need to be said was sung
And the guitar wailed on

Between verses were only muffled curses
But there was joy in the harmony
There was harmony in the words
The words that only came in a song
And the song was all we shared.

May 3, 2013 0

Porphyria’s Season

She was fine with the solstice but the equinox got her every time.

He told her she was just the same as everyone else.
She thought that was not true all the time.
Someday she’d be someone’s The One and not a stand-in For Now.

She was an expert at transition
But could not abide consistency.
She didn’t see a calm pond but saw a stagnant cesspool.

She’d sing to the songs the breeze carried
He’d try to pin her like a moth to a board
When she really wanted the flame carried on the wires.

Had she really been told she could do anything
Or was that a daydream like the others?
What a lie if true, what a story if not.

There were constraints binding her to the Now but not her mind which delved into Then and Again.

For every change she built a pattern
For every room she’d create a space
In her vision he glowed like starlight
In her ears she sang for herself alone.

He thought he knew her seasons but she surprised him just the same.

April 29, 2013 0

Rum and Remembrance

What you see is so often hard to look beyond.
The still life cannot compete with the moving pictures we create
Even when imagined, especially when real.

We hold a part of all who have touched us.
Connections from within and without, our names on marquees
Never the beautiful, often the damned
We carry laughter, miracles, dissonance.

Frequently our territory is too tame and not enough.
We search for the whys and whens and wheretofores.
Mediocrity is the spectre,
With perplexing indifference, agonizing deflection, amusing acceptance.

Laced with experience, armed with knowledge
The pen does its job, washing away the bitter
The words taste like rum.

March 26, 2013 0

Take It With You

Take it with you when you go, he said.
I could only nod, a million thoughts shattering my head.

The twisted words wrenched from my throat
Were forgotten when the velvet touch swept past my neck.

The air hung heavy in the deepening gloom,
Muffled sounds only from the fireflies and stars
The softest touch, almost not even there at all
But enough to carry away on a breeze.

The time seemed to linger on yet
Was too quickly gone.

Holding every word, every look, every laugh,
Now all remain as memories.

March 23, 2013 0

Nightmares Imprinted

She longed for the days of nightmares
Wishing she could run into her parents’ room
Be hugged and bundled
And told she was safe.

She couldn’t remember any dreams that brought light
Or any time she wasn’t scared.

Everything hurt so much
Her head spun with the memories
Stunned by finding herself years later still scared.

She couldn’t be completely certain of being awake or dreaming anymore
She had glimpsed light so bright she couldn’t stand it
She bundled herself off to hide where she found a safe place
No one would think to look right in the open
Or see through what seemed an opening
But was a dream.

Nightmares imprinted
Awoke the mind and made her sick
But then at least she wasn’t numb
And it wasn’t real if she could awake.

Dreams with light are for believers in such things
Who haven’t seen anything really ugly
Who haven’t felt the fear of wearing the ugliness like a coat
Who don’t know to welcome fear as something real
And she could walk away from something real.