one- two- three
一 二 三
i was born with two tongues
for me try to express
what it means to have a tongue
to speak of a global anguish
among each different language
where the removal of the tongue is
the anguish of each language.
i speak for those who have
lost their mother tongue
for those who lie in the dirt-
the creamy white substance
covering the tongue-less body.
for those who lie in the corner-
black eyed, and broken *****
tearing and tongue-less.
i have
one- two- three
一 二 三
tongues-
my mother’s tongue and
my father’s tongue and
now a tongue for the tongue-less
who cannot express the anguish
in their own language.
Mar 7, 2013
Mar 7, 2013 at 7:16 PM UTC
How juicy your words taste
sliding down my tongue to my thirsty throat;
tasting of freshly picked apples
squeezed into sunny warm cider-
seeping into my blood stream
and bringing me back to the fall where
the sunset leaves fall across my skin
and your voice sings with the crunch of the leaves.
I float in a sea of your words
thrashing against my skin
but I embrace every single
whispered black letter and
swallow the bitter ink,
so my lungs become too bloated
for me to hover in the foam so that I
sink and I find your cheek to kiss.
Come dance with me between the seaweed,
with sand wedged between our toes
I’ll hook on to your Cs intertwine
with Ls, slip behind Bs and lay in
the Ys when the dance is done--
you would have kissed the lids
of my eyes, slipped into my soul
and transformed me to you
your words are my thoughts and dreams
of autumn leaves and breezy waves.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:50 PM UTC
First she broke her fingers because
she wanted to know pain.
Then she broke her arm because
the first pain wasn’t strong enough.
When she got her heart broken
she said there was no pain.
Then she broke her neck
because no one knew she lied.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:49 PM UTC
it’s coming back again
that same life i fell into
strung and hung on a
thin line of fishnet lies
whispered into my nerves-
the devil is here now
i see it watching me
as i watch myself through
every reflective surface
hazy and pale;
monstrous hills clinging to my bones
i see i see you don’t have to tell me
where are my bones?
do i even have them?
covered by the rolling hills
plump and dense
sinking my soul to sin
maybe maybe i’ll roll;
too weak with greed
a deadly sin am i?
maybe all seven
i’ll let the devil speak to the hills
make them dance off my bones
maybe then if i do well
i’ll see them, the frail,
pale thin bones-
the little devil’s bones.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:49 PM UTC
At times I feel this growing distance between us,
this wind blowing our frail souls apart
as our bodies lay silent beside each other
fingers grazing cheeks and bones
and I don’t know how to save us.
How can I say that I want to tie
the fingertips of our souls together
so tight that no matter how hard we tug
your palm will remain pressed against mine?
You can hold me beneath the city lights
until I’m choking on your breath
but the wind will still blow
and we’ll keep digging our feet deeper
until we can’t recognize where our souls have gone.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:48 PM UTC
During those nights when my heart aches
and beats in those faint echoed thumps
I search for your tiny typed letters
to soothe my swollen soul
deep between those thin sheets and your skin-
echoing.
Your lungs breathe life into the ink on my skin
into songs that bring revolutions in my heart
and revolt against my mind until I’m lost
in the eerie night somewhere between
your fingers and feathers of the pillows.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:47 PM UTC
Sometimes I forget people used…
(still do but hardly do we speak…)
call me Ellie, childish Ellie.
I’ve moved to a new city-alone-
a strange vast city I knew would change me
so much I could not cling to my support to Ellie
I could not hold her hand and hope she
would lead me through the dashing cars.
I decided I would be Elizabeth,
use my real name, my real proper grown name
-am I grown now? I believe so-
that could help me shine in among millions
of anonymous faces.
I wanted to become someone new
I wanted to be a star that hovers over the mass
and brings a shimmer into everyone’s life
I wanted to leave Ellie behind and I did.
When people call for Ellie, Elizabeth continues
she forgets about the childhood she walked from,
about the people that still cling to the little
E L L I E
because they do not understand
that Ellie and Elizabeth exist in two separate worlds,
one stares up into the dark silver dotted sky
the other dancing among the glowing celestial bodies.
Ellie and Elizabeth two different beings never colliding
but once in a while when Ellie is whispered into life
and the two walk through the universe of faces.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:47 PM UTC
dear god i have seen you allow:
bodies to be blown up into bite sized pieces;
storms that leave people drowning and alone;
bombs that leave nations struggling for generations;
mutated cells to enter the body of a mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, cousin that ***** out her life so she cannot watch her daughter give birth to a beautiful boy, she will never be a grandmother.
see god
you are not a god
you are not worth the devotion of the millions that pray to you
god you are a sham
your religion is a sham
because if you were god
all this suffering and sadness in the world would never exist and i would still have my grandmother.
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 3:46 PM UTC
Sestina
E. T. Bayliss
where i am.
of what am i made
oh how is it-
this flower
or this stardust?
will i ever know?
mother nature can know
who i am
a little bit of stardust
spun, sewn and made
to bloom scents of a flower
during simple moments you can see it
god doesn’t know it
who is he but stardust
or the image of a flower
for the naive to follow- i am
not made
to follow blindly you know
but what i do know
is that somehow it-
god if you prefer was made
a thought of grand beauty and stardust
to enter weak minds but i am
not a feeble flower
i do not fl flo flow like a flower
because yes i know
that who i am
is not because of it-
god but just a little bit of stardust
coming together was how i was made-
by nature’s hand i was made
to stop and smell each flower
to stop and stare at the stardust
god was man made you know
the same way cars, computers, clothing, were made -it
all be came natural but some stop and see the real nature of how who you and i am
so here i am
bare with my eyes blinking up at all of it
and quietly i pray to the mother nature we all know.
Dec 2, 2012
Dec 2, 2012 at 9:06 PM UTC
i tell myself the
world is a beautiful place
with such little hope
Nov 29, 2012
Nov 29, 2012 at 11:50 AM UTC