You lose nothing in
the Loving Hands of Jesus
You gain everything

Some days ripen
heavy with fruit

you can reach the lower branches
and fill your basket

you can eat the flesh
juice down your chin

and laughter can follow you
deep into the summer nights.

put chocolate on my tongue
and I will be a willing slave.

Running through the dark
   our backs against walls
we were frightened heroes.

Sometimes the mind is lost in the labyrinth
far from love and loves consolation
but the land is still and silent and the sky sits watching
and welcomes the traveller from their toil
-the forever wandering in search of a home
the silence and the silent fused in perpetual embrace
a belonging, a homecoming, a way of being
discovered and rediscovered, the heart of the Universe.

a quiet determination
to not sell out
is all I ever had.

car ride,*
to,
your house,
to,
your yard,
up,
the stairs,
to
your front door,
to,
enter,
to,
step inside,
to,
look around,
to,
be leaded,
up,
stairs,
to,
stop,
to,
open the door,
to,
enter,
to,
wait for you,
to,
sit with my friend,
in,
your room.
to,
watch you enter,
to,
ask you about your day,
to,
be your friend.
but,
you, lay, down,
to,
pull, me close,
to,
not, let go,
to,
get, on, top,
to,
go, down, my pants,
to,
take, off, my top,
to,
not, hear me, when I screamed,
**STOP.

What leaf blown day did I arrive
to speak in a strangers voice?
a soul dressed in skin and bone
a raggety spirit of too many nights
spent singing to the Moon ?
this shared endeavour of poetry?

War is not a movie
but we make such a scene
dark gun metal monster machines
It’s a pattern of pitter patter
gun thunder shatters
all life and silence
leaving it destroyed
by your war toy madness

Battle ready vest
clings heavy to your chest
tanks clink and clank
from shrapnel and landmines
blowing more than just
your tired mind

megaton drop down
soldiers hit the ground
like tiny nuclear explosions
a mad marine invasion
propaganda says
we are there to save
and help them build a nation

In moments of rest
they pray to themselves
in battlefield dress
they beg to be
heaven blessed
for the god and country
they love best

we are lucky if one bad day
takes us to the next one
then we hit the worse one
bullet storms splatter
all that brain matter
face disfigured
sends dark cold shivers
while dead children
bleed red rivers

The military man
hands momma a flag
but that respect
won’t bring her baby back
stories over fade to black