Perhaps war is only glorious in song.
And love only true in the movies.
Words can't say how I feel for you.
When life makes for a weary soul
and tired bones, slow, stop yourself,
the life threatening to swallow you whole
as you spend it to the satisfaction of others
and lay here with me for a moment.
In the silence of the early morning
breathe deep the sweet fragrances
of salty skin and cheap cigarettes.

Identity is just a dream until
it becomes a nightmare.
Something that she can’t escape
and promises she can no longer keep.
Let Go and Feel Your Nakedness
outlaw Harold Norse preaches
deep inside the marked pages
of a different sort of bible.
And so she drowns her dreams
in early morning conversations
where she sleeps on the wings
of an albatross, forever in flight.

Demons keeping you up all night.
Move along, light another cigarette
and act like you're under control
instead of falling apart, tearing
patches of your hair out. Break down
and hold tight. Everything's gonna
be alright. Peeling away at layers
of newspaper on the coffee table;
knowing that talk is not action
and that only movement creates.
Love is so hard sometimes.

I wrote you another love poem today,
Full of cliches and sap, thicker than honey,
but than I thought; he loves you
and you him, so just be on with it already.
Please, forgive me if I’m too frank.

Would you take a walk with me
through the park and around the lake?
Dreams of a future lie in a purple-trimmed house.
We drink too much (coffee, *****)
while we spill our secrets,
comfortable in our vulnerability.

Stand still. Pretend for a moment
that you’re mine and I’m yours.
This time we’ll take a picture so that
later, when you go and I remain (stuck),
we’ll have something to bridge the miles
between my heart and yours.

Cheap coffee and sad country songs
take her sadness and set it on stage.
She claims Texas is home now.
More than forty years forgotten
because only two matter. He is her home.
Pretend the small talk is natural. Why then,
can’t she look them in the eyes
before she waits alone in empty airports
trying to figure out where she lost herself?
And there’s no one left to have mercy on us.

New babes cry and tiny seeds take root.
Puddle jumping. Yellow umbrella falling.
Bursts of sunshine bring forth second chances.
Breathe deeply. Become one with nature.

Thunder crackles and lightning sweeps
you back to hot nights where the music
pumped through your bodies as you danced
on rooftops against an orange sky.

Crisp air and screaming lungs
remind you to take the bitter
with the sweet. Long walks
in golden hills and warm spirits
help to ease the inevitable pain
as days grow shorter, your heart darker.

The world lay silent, blanketed
in layers of snow and sorrow.
Push through the nightmares
eating you up and rise up from
the ashes that are your despair
and find yourself a heaven
you’re still not sure exists.

I am the daughter of misfortune
And he, the keeper of silence,
hellbent on our own self destruction.
Fly high or plunge into desperation
as the shadows dance with light.