August 9, 2009

Diamond Lotus

You
are the
lotus
my
broken diamond

*

your prism
vitality
shines
from you

*

though
no sunlight
finds you
here
in
the depths
of
this forgotten mire

*

How crystal transparent
that heart
of you
fragile diamond

*

a flowering beauty
in this
swamped slough
of misery

*

You shine alone
in this
unjeweled night

*

and you
shame
the stars

*

who have forgotten
the haunted
places

March 7, 2009

Floating Flowers

My Great Grandmother
French Indian Border Reiver

Bare feet
Carry restless legs
Through darkest back wood night
Where stripped bare trees
Bid stars to shine on high so bright

Sweat laden chest
Causes cross to cling on breast
While white breath
On winter wind
In panic comes to rest

Mother straps sleepless babe
Over mad pounding of heart in chest
Closing her eyes
She floats down stream
Past empty burning nests

In hopes of reaching
Freedom’s dream
On the shores
Of the sun drenched west
*************************
Written in memory of women
who survived forced migration

Rutting Bull Dance














Golden brown hair
worn in a loose braid
tickles my back

My eyes
are bohemian blue

I am 5 foot 7 inches
and weigh 150 pounds
of solid lean muscle

I am built like a man
with large teenage breasts

My nails grow long like stone
from the tips of my fingers

My hands are calloused
from swinging a double edge axe
with deadly force

I wear a size 9 work boot
covered in red mud

I smell like leather
rolled corn and oats
mixed with the sweat of livestock

I have the natural stride of a man
with a thousand mile stare

I have the punch
of a ten pound cannon ball
and the kick of a mule

I have a mind
that is not afraid to speak

I like cold bacon beans
and cornbread

buttermilk
for my drink

I rise up
with the sun
and
go to the ground
with the moon.

From tree tops
I sing away
all my own sorrows

I bathe in rivers
and streams

I sigh deeply
under a sky
full of stars

I fear no man
or beast
of the field

I talk to God
all day
and
clean my shotgun
every night

Today I am dancing a jig
at a country shin dig

And all the young single men
Are wishing they owned enough ponies
to make me their bride

February 17, 2009

She Said

She said
I believe that for every
bus missed
somewhere out there
a train gets caught
and
it isn't what you are not
or
what you think you haven't got
She said
I might breathe out
this breath
that I'm breathin' in
but
its only in an effort
to resurrect
this life I'm livin'
She said
nothing outside
my front or back door
shocks or appalls
my mind any more
or
at least that’s what I tell myself
as I drag my heart across this floor
She said
if you only knew
the truth
of
the life inside
these shoes
oh Lord
you'd wanna walk
barefoot too


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