Who are you waiting for
out on that branch of yours?
                waiting to take the first step on the
                        whispered way home
please be patient, you've
   painted your soul into my heart and
                     I'm letting you deeper
         chiseling candlelight, feeling time
             swirl around me, getting
     so beautifully lost in one day, one
                             day after another

Eaten alive by

this is only the beginning of
a wonderful time

                            Brought to the knees of

                            what will tomorrow, next year
                            deliver?

                                                           Sent on a daydream

                                                           making friends with the heart
                                                           of all that knows heart

Be ever present

in the lives of those who carve
their own spaces in mine

Skies have been cloudy for days
Great mothballs threatening liquid
Vengeance, and all the weathermen predicted
Rain. I for one anticipated a second
Flood, torrents of water so as to wash
Everything down the drain
And why not?

That would be horrifying and
Exciting in most respects
But the rain refuses to be
Dislodged from its clouds, looming
Above a waiting world to firmly assert that
It will not visit, not until the grass is a bit greener and
The flowers show their true colors

But the brittle brown grass cries out for water and the
Cracked gray flowers weep with despair
Because, of course
Water is vital, and
Everyone needs a rainbow

This is addressed to the ears of whatever is wrong with me.

*******.

I will not break.

He swallows, hard.
Clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair.
She bites her lip and holds the tears in,
holds herself together.
A glimpse of silence, like cars under an overpass on a rainy day.
The calm before the downpour.
The eye of the storm.
What do you do when there's nothing left to say?
What do you say when there's nothing left to do?

Walk by all the flowers.
strong orchids, dark lilacs, dim roses
potted perfectly
on familiar porches

Breathe deeply as you pass them
bruise the petals with a touch goodbye
because Summer is coming
and with it, you’re going

Walk by the yellow graffiti
rooted in the lawns
                                but stop.
if only for a moment
      to see the white

      the dead dandelion, whose unborn roots
             wish to fall from their ovule.
              They wait trembling in Spring’s
                                  cruel sunny breeze

                                             Waiting for you to blow
                                                   because with your breath
                                                             the wind blows too, and the wind
                                                                                     can carry me with you.

I never even thought how hard
it’d be, to watch you with him.  
Silently observe him sip coffee
you might have made,
while he sits close enough to whisper
the lines I love through your hair
that’d catch on his lips,
if they weren’t silent.

It hadn’t occurred to me
that seeing your left hand,
dangle there next to his, empty,
could hurt more than if your
head was buried in his chest
which a week ago
stung like watching a bee
eviscerate itself in my palm.

I hadn’t realized I had no idea
how this would end.  Could I even
see myself sitting next to you in class,
holding your hand, whispering the words
just to taste your hair? I can dream
these things, like I’m dreaming now
but it’s just as hard to know this
as it was to know we
existed.