At a streetfair downtown
A 5-dollar coupon in hand
We used to buy a skinny tree
Potted up in an old rusty can

It may have looked less than promising
So leggy and light as a feather
Tentatively thought did it have roots?
Our first purchase we made together

We planted our tree in the yard
That spindly gumbo-limbo
But native to our Florida
It knew just how to grow

Just like I’d envisioned its shade
A canopy against fierce heat
Protecting us from that relentless sun
It’s now grown twenty-five feet

Six years have passed us by now
And risking sounding sappy
We’ve grown, too, as has our love
The tree and we are happy

I once sewed into your pocket
all the hopes and dreams
I wanted one day, for you
inside of those seams
were wishes
for your happiness
hopes for a better future
and a line of text
that can only be read
as you put hand in pocket
and pull it inside out
and it said
remember this empty pocket
it was once full of hope
pulled from the warmth
of a jacket, it represents
the slippery *****
of coldness
that you once shivered beneath

inside the empty pocket
of the warmth of this coat
is all the love I hope you'll keep

I said to you I Love You
As plain as words can be
You whispered back softly
Why do you love me?
Hesitating ever so slightly
How do I form the words?
Expressing a lifetime of happiness
Into just one tiny clause…
To turn the world upside down
With only a small smile
A light inside the darkness
To make it all worthwhile
A laugh to capture the moment
Where happiness is complete
A smile, a shrug, pride in hand
A solid stance against defeat
A tear that’s shed for all that’s lost
A heart with a room for tender
A sigh for all that has gone before
A place of all remembered
You ask me why I Love You
Three words that gave me pause
A secret smile will touch my lips
To utter…
Just Because

~21.07.2010~

I wish to write of softer things
Hands shake, hate in my veins.
Pen pressed to paper,
Red ink, scribbling empty words

Repeating, repeating, repeating
Hate, hate, hate

Heart weighed by tons
Baggage, carried, gathered, found
Books scattered across the floor
Unfinished, left open.

Struggling, I cannot
Bring myself to... move on
Close them, my library
Clean house, write a new story.

One day, these words,
Will find meaning, create hope.
Cleanse the monster, the one
Torturing  my restless soul.