Mary-Taylor Valand

Mary-Taylor Valand Oct 2013

You say you belong to me repeating,
"I'm yours, I'm yours"
When you know as well as I,
that you too belong to the world
The breeze from the valley lifted your feet from the soil and you knew freedom,
There is a mapped ocean in your mind's eye
And if you look at me long enough I can see the wildflowers in your stare-
but I will follow your lie.
Tell me you're mine.
I'd like to dream that I own the world.

Mary-Taylor Valand Oct 2013

Matador

When she walks in, the room turns to a street in Peru
and I'm wading around in the heat, joining in crowds and avoiding the few
trying to get from left to right without the stare--
the eyes that fight my every move
pulling my nerves out of their grooves
but I'll rip out the bull
the one from the china shop
inside my skull
and I'll let him loose on this sea of people
Aiming for you, red
Collateral damage is your own fault
If you'd just step into view
You know that he's aiming for you.

Mary-Taylor Valand Jul 2013

day drunk drudgery//i judge you, don't judge me

your moves on the board have been a series of obsessions
1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3
until you made your way back to me
because your definition of the outline of a woman was clarified at a very early time
and the succession of women,
of words,
of worlds,
and blurs
all a piece of the kaleidoscope of your carefully placed mind
drugs like that
pretty like this
touch me like that and talk to him like this and tell her like that just in case no one ever has
and i have a birds eye view of opinons
truth is, i don't care what you do
as long as it always comes back to me to mine and what i can define

Mary-Taylor Valand Jun 2013

Resisting Winter's Hibernation

The lights go up
The southern plates drive south
With a fresh mindset
A fresh habit
They leave with their poison of choice
Their previously sunny summer minds in tow

The chill
He settles down on your face, your skull
And he wonders why you shake to get through the cold

The man to your left asks why a woman like you would show up alone
“In this frigid climate, and at your age, can you walk home alone?”
You respond, “I like to rapture the show
To creep through the crowd
And take something with me on my way home”

Whether it be a trinket, a bottle, a bag, a warm body
You find what the moonlit night requires
You find what you currently need as an idol
You find it all on these merciless streets
By the dawn of the next night you know what to discard
And what life wants you to keep

Mary-Taylor Valand Jun 2013

Not Everything Wants To Change

Good.
Morning.
               I hate what you stand for.
The pleasantries that neither of us can cling to when reality comes knocking
in through the flimsy curtain and
Where is my comfort?
It is contained in solitude
until I've been alone all day

A woman once told me that when you're old you need work to keep the blood at a steady
boil.
                                          Well,
I'm 24 and I haven't reached a simmer all year.
Good.
Evening.
             You're hiding something.
So, stay over and see if you can muster up my youth
& douse my flaming fear
with
every
drop
of
boil
running through your veins.
Good.
Night.
         There you are again.
Just as I remember you.
You're a consistency that I can't quit.
And
if nothing else,
it makes my blood
run
in
circles.

Mary-Taylor Valand Jun 2013

Mine Truly

timing
the time’s arch nemesis
they’ll wrestle intention to the ground
a point on a circle always comes back round
i want to rename love
a word that has a
tick
tock
click to it
a gentle slap at the beginning and the end of it
once upon a flash of skin
lightning rose up from below the waist, within
and the quick
boom
bang
spite of it
we both know where this will lead
a clock tower’s shadow ahead of you and me
the face is round, honesty will plead
and the point will be reached again
at the dot
spark
round
embark of it

— The End —