Reach for the stars;
They can be had,
But only the long way ‘round,
Through time or trials,
And in the early morning,
When the last of them were fading,
I reached out,
And fell just short;
There was no Heavenly hand
To cushion my Fall,
Just the same dream of impact
That Lucifer himself
Must have invented
When someone,
More subtle
Than the other beasts
Of the Garden called Paradise
Whispered to him –
“Reach for the stars;
They can be had.”

I look at her,
All graceless, shameless beauty,
And I am again
Amazed that us two should
Have come together in the way we did,
Astounded that we swim in the same waters,
Awed that I get to walk in her world,
I, who started from the bottom up;
She, who started at the top, and,
Like Lucifer cast from Heaven,
f
e
l
l

Paradise Lost and Losing My Religion
Are sacred to her,
As am I,
But I don’t tell her
About the scars I count like stars
And call by name,
Nor do I mention the blood on her hands,
Mostly her own, mingled with that
Of us unlucky few.

She dances in the sun,
And I wish I could join her,
But fear stills my tongue
And I am silent still;
Silent, and silently suffering,
Tending to her wounds
But never to mine,
And wondering, as always,
When she will flit, fairy-like,
Into the arms
Of someone better than I.

Well,
Such is life,
C’est la vie,
They tell me,
But I rebel
Against the very notion
And I just want you to know
Deep down inside
And then deeper still
That I do not accept your broken French
Because you don’t know ‘life’
Until you’ve made the decision it’s over,
And changed your mind.

You’ve never seen that side of me,
And you never will, if I have my way,
But there is a part of me,
Buried deep,
That is the storm
And the fire and the ice
And the wind and the rage
And the pestilence and the plague
And the bearer of death itself.

We were drawn together
Not by magnetism,
Though that would come later,
As we fell into orbit
Like a planet
And its satellite
Spinning helplessly
Around their star.

No,
It began much more humanly,
Though not humanely,
As we, thrown together
Through chance,
Negotiated
The rules
Of a game
Neither of us ever learnt
To play.

The name of the game
Was left unspoken,
Lost in translation -
Stolen
By the language of fear,
And the many tongues of that ancient serpent
Called hatred.

So shine I did,
Perhaps a bit too brightly,
And she,
Never having learned
Not to stare into the sun
Got caught up in the flames
As I burned
And burned
And burned
Out.

The room is still spinning,
And so is she,
Twirling as she dances,
Skirts lifting high,
Arms outstretched,
Heart ****** forward,
An offering to herself;
Maybe later I will
Drink from that holy chalice
As well,
But for now
I stumble
Across the dance floor,
Never as graceful
Or as elegant as she,
Never as beautiful
Or as resplendent,
Never anything like the shining star
I rose to catch
On a bitter winter day
Yet beloved by that angel
That fell from the Heavens
Into my arms.

And into my arms
She falls again,
And rises on her tippy-toes
To kiss me,
Gentle and slow,
Before spinning once more.
Dizzy
And drunk in love,
We both fall
Into each other,
Onto the floor,
And I soar to new highs
With once glance into her eyes,
Sparkling with mischief.
I part my lips to speak her name,
But she silences me
With one slim flinger,
And it is left unspoken.