The weight of silence is easy
You can learn it too
Just sit and breathe and let
The silence do what it needs to do

Thus when I come to you
You know I don't want your talk
Of 'Just know I'm here'
And you won't expect me to walk
You along the path of my fear

All you do is sit and breathe and listen
Just sit and breathe and let
The weight of silence
Turn on the faucet
Of slow, slow healing

When I was small I said “Mom
my tummy hurts” and
then kisses and maybe a spoon of liquid
(icky) tylenol followed and then
All Better!

Now
when I’m bigger in shoe size, in brain
(in tummy)
Now when
my stomach starts to bubble and
roil and twist I know the source
is not candy and the
cure is no longer kisses and
I need so much more I need
slow breaths and
slower
thoughts
and
no maternal concern concerning
itself with my intestines, small or
large

I clung to you like a lifeline-
A floating buoy in a violent sea
But when I let go of you
Into the deep, deep
Blue,
I found that I had gills—
And I could breathe.

"hold your breath, sweetie"

with everything around me
muffled and distorted,
slowed and darkened,
to an intoxicating mush
that leaves me breathless;
how can you expect me
not to want this beauty
inside my lungs?

With me, I have ghosts;
With them, I'm not left alone.
They live between these walls,
I'm afraid to feel at home.

They come near me, I feel them,
But they follow me through the door.
When I close my eyes, I see them;
When I want it stopped, there's more.

They come to say it all;
How they're not there, they're gone;
Only the unsaid, left to crawl,
Only there until the show of dawn.

I have these ghosts because I need them,
The void's too deep for swimming.
At least this way I lead them,
They go where I go; leave while I'm dreaming.

My ghost used to be real;
With flesh and blood under raw skin.
They remain lively still,
the warmest eyes, the coldest grin.

At times a fire burns in my eyes,
The room fills up with smoke from the flame,
Inhale - I'm free; Exhale - I realize;
I can breathe without saving air for them.

All the space is as much as I give,
They have power as long as I shrink,
The air I hold, they receive;
When I detach myself, they link.

Ghost are real - if you let them be.