The Wrestler

Sleek and slender with
Aerodynamic curves.
The sweat and smells of defeat
And the rapid flutter of whistle
And the occasional strained
Pulled sprained dislocated
Disjointed daunted jaunted
Stunted jammed and jostled
Human thrown across
rubber and foam and plastic.

Hurt by death
Twisted and torn and stretched to pieces
Through giveaways and usurpations
And takeovers and dominion rights
Not knowing where ends the detriment.
Strung together by wires and
Ink pens and signature lines
Mapping out adolescence
In the rearview lies a trail
Of broken promises or promising
Nothingness, a quagmire.

Screens which once shielded
Her modesties now rebuilt as
Hog troughs and kennels roofs
And tables for orangutans to perch,
A crow’s nest from which to
Target passer-bys with hurled
Feces.  Her modesty stolen yet
her Self continuously intact.

Mother

Without her presence
Random mosaic of life
Events and changes and shadows
Lifting the veil lifting the spirit
With guilt and wanton desire for
More time as if it really existed.
Answering the Siren’s song was
Unexplored by those of us
On this end, but by ink and memory
And glossy faded Polaroids.

She is idolized
Eulogized – leaving behind a beacon –
No stone nor seal nor
Piece of parchment could have
Created a more stunning
Masterpiece.  Tis no great
Rembrandt or Michelangelo
But this simple sinful woman
Created something so sublime.
No artisan would dare, no
Craftsman would be enough skilled,
No artist so bold or audacious-
But this naïve heralded an angel.

Victoria

Named for a great waterfall
Or a long standing monarch,
Her heart bled truth and
Her song wailed in agony
But her mouth, genteel and melancholy
Yet the story it told was a whisper
of something greater.  Her tongue
could speak of the sweetness and the
lightning and the immediacy of life.
And I fell into her eyes and she
Echoes in my heart.

I’ve wiped away her tears
And I’ve cradled her inabilities.
She bled on my sincerities and
Collapsed at my feet.  Solemnity
Awaits her every move, but most
Deserving of joy- something that
Evaded her for so long.

A toddler tiptoes back and forth
Moving merely inch by inch as
Balance is learned and gravity
Defied over months and years.
Passion has no such wait, yet
Happiness, the quest for the grail
Toddles toward some never ending
Oasis upon the horizon.
It is with the passing of years
That joy becomes ever more present
Long since suffered, long awaited joy.