Through the bars
he saw stars
Heaven
was a centimetre away
Fingers curled around metal
as his soul poured like water
from life's jug
He saw his essence
lifting up into the night sky
like a tear in someone
else's eye.

Restless is the mind
fumbling through unfamiliar spaces
How did we get here?
How did we end up
tumbling in a washing machine?
Is this a cleansing?
Wherefore art my Ark?

Once i thought I knew something
and then knew nothing at all
Climb the wall or break it
fly on wing or fall
Somewhere in between
I've heard that balance is in tow
Something about ducks
being neatly in some row
Evades me, this enlightenment
pervades me does the doubt
Essentially there's always something
that we do without.

This little bird flew to heaven
and that little bird flew to hell
God was away
but the Devil was waiting
for a penny in the wishing well
Some little birds went to paradise
while others simply fell
God be scarce and the Devil be willing
to play another game of dice.

Some say ..
others do.
Between saying and doing,
lies an ocean
of maybe.

I searched for you by daylight
and found nothing but snow
I called for you by moonlight
and was answered by a crow
It said 'sssshhhh, be still, now
as you tend to your heart.'
Where have you been, friend?
I promised to walk with you
until the day's end
but felt your hand slipping...
I held on and you let go
and now I'm not sure where to go
without your footprints in the snow.

curiously examines the corner
as she searches for shadows
cast against the black abyss
of her sleeping mind
when the lights come on
she hides in the cracks
waiting, waiting to awaken
from the dreamstate that
some call life

so my art teacher said,
" draw abstract.
dont think about the perfect line. "
when i do this in writing
things sometimes come undone
and the reader does not understand...
except for maybe 1.
1 is enough.

Thoughts have mass.
What weighs more?
The carrying of a cross,
or the thought thereof?
Know ye not that ye are Gods?
What then, of the temples
on either side of your head?
Did you forget that you are Divine?
That you are the temple
of your own God?
That you co-create the space you
co-inhabit, body and mind?
As above so below.
The power of a Word.
Know naught else,
but know Thyself.
For thou art made in the image of God.
The architect of your reality is you.
Speak wisely
as you cast your thoughts
upon Creation.

So i spoke
and was arrested for my words..
But in the beginning there was only the word
so lets arrest God for having spoken.
It was Him who spoke the original thought
that put this wheel into motion.
I am a mere driver of this wheel,
as are you.
So let's drive this vehicle of life
into the sunset and whisper words of wisdom,
let it be, let it be.

You could change your name
Would this change you?
When an actor steps into their role,
are they not altered
as they become their character?
I think the same applies to a name.
There is power in a name.
I could be Chantell or Cassandra or Karmina
and each of these resonate
with a different aspect of me..
Chantell has insecurities, is bright but childlike,
Cassandra wears dresses, sings and heals the world
Karmina rides bike, wears boots and takes no ****
There are times when I am one of them
and times when I am all of them,
keeping in balance the multiples of personality
that exist within one being.
Are we not, after all, One?
I am, that I am.
The meaning of this being that
in spite of being oneself,
one is also every other self.
A reflection of an evolving God
because As above, so Below.

I will not be cast alongside
the shallows of your grave
with the loss of you
embedded in my heart
you will depart and take
your memories with you
and I will remain,
sane, scarred..  but alive.

This isn't working for me
this gaining of pain
this that comes
with the gathering of years
my body is not responding
the way I wish it to
- a jump on a trampoline
- a fall on the rocks
Both knees scream in defiance
of my youth
and it frustrates me
when people say,
You are not a child anymore..
What are we but overgrown children
waiting for an adulthood that
seizes the day and shrugs childhood
off of its shoulders
like boulders needing to be overcome
I will remain young in my heart
as my body becomes a bag of bones.

Hello, my friend.
Its been a while since
we touched base
since we kissed
the face of sunshine
and danced together in the rain..
But the end is inevitable,
isn't it?
We can bend the rules
and shift the goalposts again
but there comes that time
when we have to let go
and we have to say goodbye.

Sheathed in a layer
of supersonic air
the wind parts for her
as she rides the airwaves
like a dancer in the sky
Stars blinking in and out
as she passes
illumined by the essence
of her presence
as she smiles upon the darkness
and revels in the black canvas
of a picture waiting
to be painted
by the brush of sunshine

he rides a KLR
and they wizz into the stars
vroom vroom
adventure bike, not speed
no reason to bleed (again)
no joy in riding in the rain
she likes the way it hums
the way her best friend drums
she like the way it growls
the way her mom's dog howls
she likes the way it moves
the way her husband grooves
she likes everything
about motorbikes
like taking early forest hikes
its just a thing - no simple matter
like Alice and her Hatter
she flew once,
from the handlebars
and broke a bone or two
but still,
she likes to ride
she keeps her circle wide,
- wider -
She Rider.

she plays the music loud
when no one is around
she dances like there's no tomorrow
and never a yesterday
she basks in the palpable sound
of her rapid (rabid) heartbeat
bare feet pounding
into unhallowed ground

we don't know until we know
and then,
when the playground shifts,
we find ourselves engaged
in the same game
but the angle has changed
seems you never know until you know
that you knew nothing before
which means
that you never know much, ever
in spite of being so clever

the whale is heavier in gold when dead
the tree worth more when planed into planks
the flower's so pretty but dies in the vase
when last did we stop to say thanks?

Flounder not, little bird
know you that you have wings?
Fly!
Lift those mighty, crooked things
let tension subside
into the joyride of climbing
undulated skies
Let go of things that bind you
and allow yourself to rise, arise!
Albeit in your mind it is as real
as what surrounds you
you are bound to nothing
but that upon which you linger.

Demon
why do you choose me
to chew upon
I was Cinderella once
until you sliced my hair
with the blade
that cut Snow's heart out,
Rapunzel staring blindly
bleeding from your eyes.

Words are music
without rhyme nor reason
put into perspective
are like the changing
of the season..
Reading is an art
that sometimes gets lost
But writing is a calling
that comes with heavy cost
It reminds me, sometimes,
of the carrying of the Cross.

what you think you saw
was but a shadow on the wall
what you thought you knew
was knowing nothing at all
passed a nearby shadow
it was nothing but a cat
tin roof creaking
at the dropping of a hat

They played the odds
against their Gods
and watched the cards fall
Babylon was tall
but God was taller
than them all.

scene 1: enter Noah

scene 2: enter Covid19

scene 3: what Game do we play Now?

scene 4: where were we before the End?

Lord..
chasten me with your wisdom
that I might bow down
on baptized knees
and know
that where God gave Life
the devil claimed tenancy
but where the devil
has sullied my feet,
God will wash them clean.

did you try to reach me?
i am sorry i wasn't there.
i don't know where
i am right now,
somewhere caught up
between care and despair.
i will call, sometime.
when i find myself enough
to find my phone.

I saw you coming from a mile away
and said, Stop! Stay away!
This is not your day to dismay me
This hole in my heart
will not be made whole by you
this time around
Another day belonged to You.

not without disdain
i refrain from
your advances
king Frances
why do you
beg of me so
i am neither your bride
nor your **.

"one last dance!"
she cried
"one last chance,"
he sighed.
And so begins the story
of betrayal
and thus began the search
for Holy Grail
for thou dost and
thou dost Not
be impervious to
the Magic of Mankind
and most especially
to the Hand and Heart
of Woman.

i am Me
and a bit of You
a lot of You
and a bit of Me
Have we not won
in realizing that we,
indeed, are One?

Hanging on
to the edges
of the canvas
loose threads
unravelling
my picture

with some things
the closer you get
the further away you feel
as though by zoning in
you enter the space in between
'interstices' - mind the gap
lest you fall through
never having reached
the next plateau

are you real?
you are behind that screen
but no more real
than a virtual being.

if i thought
the hardest thing
was moving on
then leaving
would be surmountable
to death defying

your skin and mine
come close
but we are not close anymore
and yet we are!
I cannot explain it
but we are inextricably bound.

you left a smudge
of blue in your wake
footprints from skywalking
coming down from the clouds
and onto the ground
takes some effort
unstrapping those helium balloons
from yourself was a weight lifted
from your shoulders
fly not over boulders but
push on through,
feeling you feet on the ground
you're a hound not a bird
and it's a dog's life

the smell of wet hair
shifted his shoulder
touching strand to strand
his and hers blended
one merman unto a maiden

There is a curve,
a line and a dot .
And that means something
to someone, somewhere.
Put it down. Dot .
Write what feels right
And turn left when
It is the right way to go.

Fingers tangled up in
a semblence of hair
neither here nor there
barely holding
onto feathered threads
that are in the process
of becoming unwoven

climb the tops of
tall, ivy clad walls,
slip down the edges
of cool bricks
and jump gently onto
untrodden soil..
wander through a
sweetly scented garden
and choose a flower.
give it a name.
say hello.
then tear off petals
one by one
and ask it
if it loves you.

Wild winds were at her back.
She said, "Jack, get me outta here!"
So Jack took her to the mountain
flung her soul into the fountain,
said Goodbye Girl.
Welcome, Woman.

I feel myself fragmenting
into pieces that are falling
into spaces that are calling
me to knees unused to crawling

today i'll clean the floors
tomorrow i'll do the doors
and then i'll sit
and think for a bit
about anything other than chores

truth be said,
you read me wrong..
that letter was never written!
rather, you wrote your own
instead of picking up the phone
and had it posted,
from me to you
and you read me as you chose.

Alluding to..
All else?
That which matters
and that which does not.

Stay over there
and
love me from a distance
this way,
lovers can do
what they wish to do
because distance
determines it all
doesn't it?

are you my lover or not?
in my head yes
in my body not

what is real?

if my fingers do not
actually touch your skin,
is all forgiven?

tumbling over toes
i find my foot in my mouth
more often than i would like
can't take some things back
they stick like bubblegum
blows blows blows
bubbles popping reminding me
that i said the wrong thing again

a love like ours
was written in the stars
in little bites of caviar
and diamond studded bars

were you there
when they turned on the lights?
what a sight
for sore eyes

nothings quite as sweet
when lustre's gone to sleep

there is nothing sweet about disguise
there's only that distracted surprise
at the blue and yellow hue
of bruises around my heart
tears burn as chillies do
my stomach chewed up
like the bubblegum you used
to stick that lovenote to the wall
the heat of summer made it fall
so you stuck it under my desk
but wood burns, you know,
nails rust and memories turn to dust
and oh! there comes a little wind
and there you go, unpinned.