My knees weaken when I see you

half smiling lips and wine soaked breath

I am still faithful

a shadow, shadow that walks

without body

without a solid shape

I turned to God once, ideally,
my mouth forming prayers I'd saved

for you

muttering malice into the nothingness

etching memories the way they etch gravestones

a black crayon and blank paper,
pressing hard and hoping

that the colours will somehow
bloom into meaning

Godless, knees shaking

a single handshake and I am
crucified

We agreed, did we not?
On the way we'd love.
Till we got caught
when your heart became tough.
Hammer came down with a thud.
Crystal future to mud.

Take me home, it's too painful
lull me to sleep- is this what we came too?
Still you promised me.
Guess all love leaves eventually.

After, your heart
opens to me.
My mouth'll tumble out,
every single sweet story it knows.
Just so those eyes- ever gaze to mine.
I'll leave that ******* called time
To his own lover.

I am slowly
beginning
to realize
that to love
can be easy,
but also very
difficult.
It can be
innate,
and sometimes
it must be learned.
It can be
as a well-mothered
baby
and also
be orphaned.
It can be oppressed,
and it can be
welcomed.
It can be hoped for,
and its flame
can also be
smothered
with doubt.
If
you have the strength
and courage
you may
trust
in its donor,
even as a small child
blindly puts its
faith
and hope
into the hands of a
kindly stranger.
Initially, it is
seed like,
and how it is nurtured
depends
on you...
whether you wish it
to reach
its maturity
in the form of
a dandelion....
or
a rose....

cj 1971

I have powers
beyond my wildest dreams.
Ambition that makes
a cup runneth over.
A voice that shakes
mountains to their peaks.
Words that demand
to be fashioned on paper.
Who knew
that my greatest power
was a still tongue
behind hushed lips,
and the willingness
to simply
                                      walk away?

there is plenty of time in the world,

just not enough for us

Why is it that you always look so
colorful?

When you laugh so much
that your face flushes red,
when your pink shirt reflects in your cheeks,
or when you stand in the sun,
bathed by the orange-yellow, white,
light beaming off your brow in specks,
when you surround yourself in leaves
of greens, dark and not,
and when you lean in close
to your computer screen,
and the purple-blues bounce off your nose.