Those cotton candy summer skies,
Fade away
To clouds of gray.
The birds sang softly in the night,
Bye and bye
the songs must die.

The joy of childhood's bliss have past.
Silently,
It frightens me.
Now the days...they go so fast.                                                        
Time is up.
Fill labor's cup.

she comes back smelling of a different city
cold, sickly sweet aftermath of a harsh evening
i do not mind.

i do not understand anything
but i can sense the sickness she carries
through everyday disasters

             sitting on the bathroom floor
             pulled into the folds of herself
             crying through breathing exercises

             tender days when she does not eat anything
             but fills my bowl
             and lies with me
             for hours

             flowers sharing my name
             wilted on the windowsill
             i wonder who will care for her
             when i share their fate

i can do nothing about this
but i am here

sometimes
we are worlds away
             our time intersects
             briefly
                       we greet
                       and part
                                    but
                    ­                right now,
                                    she is Home
                                    
                           ­         right now,
                                    i am Home

everything comes through the senses
you know of nothing, but through them.

Never be happy,
Said the girl with blue hair
Because then you will become
Very very boring
And you will start to die.


-- Eleanor

“How are you feeling these days?” they asked. “Your heart is broken, isn’t it?”

Drowning. I feel like I’m drowning. I’m trying to catch a breath. I’m trying to live. But no matter how much I want to stay afloat, my body just keeps on sinking. No matter how much I want to live, my body just can’t seem to cooperate. I’m just waiting to be saved. Waiting for someone to rescue me from these waters. Waiting for something to hold on to.

My heart
crackles
with an indecipherable
something
which gives it
shape,
yet seems to simultaneously,
parasitically
siphon
all
joy
and
will
from within it.

Maybe it's just
my heart
masquerading,
pretending substance
to cover up the overwhelming
nothing.

After all, nature abhors a vacuum.

Whitewashed fences mark
the division of shallow lines
of demarcation marring a bitter plain

Truth that too can be seen
as a balance with bruised knees
whispering prayers of bent supplication

Looking for a smile seen in clouds
of judgment and blurred hazes

The drum beats of life and echoes still,
in cracked addicted alleys of fairness
gone awry with a broken wheel
spinning on a loom of time

Native pains and naive indiscretions inexcusable, earth telling a compelling
tale if you can dig your hand in the dirt

Seeking through the mire for truth
and tales long since buried in the sands
of time, which whisk away history,
books burned with lies full of distaste

Imprinted on impressionable minds
like miscreant clones sprung
from fanatical factories

Indoctrinated with false education
and breeding still more hate, echoing,
listening to the heartstrings playing
a concerto of truth, an aria of sad realism

A beating of a drum
that has long since been silenced
by an oppressive, regressive hand

These times give me fear when courage
is what is needed most, post haste

Hate seems to be in such a fury
hurrying at a madman's pace.

::::::::::::::::::::::::


Nary a frog croaks
terra cotta garden lamp
selfishly, glows dim.

a striped gastropod
stretched longer, out of its shell
braver....in the dark

neighbors' dogs howl deep,
gecko sings its night songs loud
bats crash...swoop their prey.....

unseen black cats cross
there's no wind, yet...leaves rustle
shadows multiply

the dark feeds the mind
superstition lives...it breathes
moon hides...........i shall, too...


Sally

copyright September 22, 2017
rrab