Why is it that, a cuckoo
Is locked up in a clock
While lunatics with guns
Are left, to run amuck
WIZDUMBs BY JA 221

when i was younger,
i was afraid to step in quicksand.
jumping from cushion to cushion,
don't fall off the cliff!

when i was younger,
i was afraid to sleep without light.
covers folded under my feet
don't let the munsters get at me!

when i was younger,
i was afraid the day was too short.
indignantly holding onto my book
but mom, this is the good part!

but now?

i am clinging onto the cliff,
aching to let go.

i am surrounded by my monsters,
they're my only friends.

i am sure good parts don't exist,
that genre's called fantasy.

they said the biggest fear is death,
**so why am i so unafraid?

I see it in
         shades of
liquid coal
  slaking
    my aching
           thirst in
black ocean shoal
      onyx crystals
             washed up
            in tides
       of barely
    peeking,
night-lava eyes
     silently spoken
                   and through
     the waters of deep
my soul is
    waking up from
          eons of sleep
              weaving garlands
             of darkest green,
            seaweed tips
that I tenderly keep
       strewn, in chlorophyll strips  
                      across the stardust glow
                                       of my naked skin
                                     as I liquid float,
                       spirit whirring within
                              eyes bright
                in illuminated
          moonstone glow
picking up signals
of halted flow
This is needed here,
in this darkest of dark
waters abundant
with tight, broken sparks
shards of the living
and fragments of souls
                  a luminosity of darkness
                  making us whole
      And pulsing next to me
   in beauty's surprise
phosphorescent creatures,
     a feast for the eyes
           loving, gently brushing
                my outstretched fingers-
                     bioluminescence divine
                         on my body lingers
                   from jellies to squid
                to jet -hued sharks
    knifing through layers          
     of dark on dark
         within the
lush waters' quiet force
a dance in faded flicker
conjures the source
                 within the depth
                         of the depths
                            of my endlessly
                            wet
          in my darkest of dark
between blood and sweat
penetrating the mysteries
   that quake through
          this heart
         filling it up
  as it tears it apart
         smashing it
    to smithereens
   creating sutures
   of ironic healing
until through the cracks
both wide and slight
        shoots up
the flare
of my own
    inner
          light

I am given this right
to  feel to try
I with the next breath
expand my chest and might

I flex my aura my
lungs my being
I strive like every living
thing

I stand as tall as I was made
by the rich dirt
nurtured by the falling waters

I stand  in the rain
arms spread wide taking in
my birthrights
the worth
of me

I give each and all
every sprout every tree
every gnat and flea
this right also

I cry when
the rain falls
when the sky clouds up

the heavens must breathe ,
too
thankfully