I pray that Christ shall heal all of your pain.
Thus enriching your poetry with Great healing.
I pray that Christ then shall use you all mightily.
To reach out and he shall keep filling your heart.
With love, so you can keep reaching out to more.
With the same love that Christ has loved you with.
Then God shall start to bless others through you.
For first of all, he shall bless each of you here.
With so much more than you could ever handle.
So that people shall know that Christ lives in you.

Soon
Autumn's grand parade will clamor
      through the streets
Drumbeats
Chilly harvest of marching bands
      and hayrides
      The ebbing tides
of long days
Confetti blown from reluctant trees
Fluttering ochres and rocketing rubies
As nature lets the clock run out

Blow summer a sweet kiss goodbye --

I awoke this morning
From my little sleep
And the world was still here --
My robe waiting at the end
      of the bed
There on the shelf were books
      to read and in the pantry
      food for my belly --
And outside my window an endless
Gray sky where birds huddled in
The emptying trees, writing songs
Of southbound adventure
As the air hummed and lifted the
Weight of day's beginning --

And me with my small biography,
Stretching into its grace
Once more --

She hides her smile
behind black lipstick.
Her voice is low
and in between.
She smells of loneliness
and cigarettes.
She sings for me
when she is high.

She gets me higher
than I can go.
She takes me low
and in between.
Her heart's on fire
when she sings.
Her voice is smokey,
full of pain.

She sings of loneliness
and broken dreams.
Her dance is low
and in between.
She gets me high
and lets me down.
She kisses me
with black lipstick.

r ~ 4/29/14

I live in a nation called America,
and, today, I am human.