POETRY | strip-header-layout

The Scribbles and Scratches

I see the wheels shaking to life and begin to roll

I've warmed this wooden bench for too long

And oh, the waiting was intoxicating

Colors, sounds, stories dodging and weaving

Dramas of every kind unfolding

I confess I was dazzled...changed forever

But now I'm running.

No thought for what others think of my sudden gallop.

I'm a bolt of light, aimed at the nearest moving door.

And then the voice in my head...you must jump

So, I jump and think of my ballet teacher

The mean one who taught us to leap to a drum.

Bless that teacher. Bless them all!

Landing I look back to find my baggage

So quickly so small in my sight

What will happen to my life's treasures?

I'll never know.

So, let them be my heartfelt thanks

(like flowers at the end a great performance)

To noble station, sun-dappled platform and all its merry players.

The Phoenix

Being reborn is not what you think

It's cold, like a campfire the morning after

It's primal earth, rushing spring and windy flight

A newborn shivering at first day's light

I am the wave that crashes

And I am the pounded shore

I am the moon that pulls

And I am the spinning atoms of life itself

The force of the sea that night

The thunderous crash of the waves

The silent powerful pull of the undertow

Terrifying me... a child, five-years old

Who first understood forever changes

With face to the sea and back to the shore

And the ink-dark night above

Where is there to stay?

Tuck myself away in some hidden nook and sleep

Quite forgotten

It didn't matter what I hoped for

Foamy wet tendrils found me

Salt-scented winds sought me out

And the starry domed mystery could not leave me alone

I put on my purple cap.

I put on my purple cap. The one that looks like a chef's hat.

There's the triton I'd fought so hard to hold

Now home to dust and cobwebs.

Get it. Get it now.

It is time.

Let the past pass

Let the past pass.

Say your goodbyes with due respect.

Move forward

or upward—

whichever calls to you.

Just don't stop.

Wax on, wax off—

every warrior falls.

What happens next is what matters most.

I see now

This yard was too long a dead place

Before you arrived

The ground did not tremble with new life as it does now

This yard (with nowhere to hide)

Has seen the destruction of empires

The betrayal of love and friendship

Blood has stained its sand

Tooth in flesh

How does it dare to live again?

But still it edges on

New sprouts defying history

Is it not terrifying to discover life’s very nature is now tethered to another?

I see now

This yard was silently waiting for forgotten elemental energy

To swirl about

To sow the seeds of flower, tree and weed alike

All being the same in the end

Life is life. It cannot be parsed.

And you

Uncertain or not

The harbinger of this humble clay’s grace.