White Goddess
by Michael R. Burch

White in the shadows
I see your face,
unbidden. Go, tell

Love it is commonplace;
tell Regret it is not so rare.

Our love is not here
though you smile,
full of sedulous grace.

Lost in darkness, I fear
the past is our resting place.

Published by Carnelian, The Chained Muse, Poetry Life & Times, A-Poem-A-Day and in a YouTube video by Aurora G. with the titles “Ghost,” “White Goddess” and “White in the Shadows”

Keywords/Tags: White, Goddess, ghost, shadows, spirit, Muse, love, regret, sedulous, grace, face, common, commonplace, rare, darkness, past, grave

how much longer will I wait for butterflies bursting red at the wings, fiery orange curling their tips into flames

today is long and heavy like the space before a goodbye
i watch a moss-backed turtle float on clouds above the water and I think of you,
of coiled garter snakes and soft pink sunsets, of warm lentil soup and white zinfadel and fern forests and I know,
I would not be enough for you

settled in the space between sun and moon I am two parts water, one part fire,
I am boiling hot springs set on a river deep, bubbling and breaking and gasping for air,
I am summer thunderstorm, hot rain and violent life and love without control,
I am ocean fissure, the space between, red hot lava shifting slowly like a lover beneath the sheets
I am self-contradiction, all crab-shell and shape-shifter and the answerer of my own questions,
I am crystal cave heart and loose leaf mind, waterfall eyes and moonshine smile, you cannot tame me but you cannot let me go

Nicholas

a cute and blackhaired
boy gentleman homeboy
buddy companion dude and son

his name is nicholas
"victory of the people" meaning:
precisely this

Eden

my daughter's glowing eyes
full of heavens and oceans
yet trees, apples and snakes

"eden" is her name:
name of a divine place
land of sins and land of all of us

is there anything else to say?
they are my my kids and i love them
is there anything else to say?
they are my my kids and i love them

between three oceans silver rocks
and the desert is our place
land of loopholes in a box made of clay

finding our faces in neon-green shores
it's all icy and open for fire
wide fields illuminating twinkling

faces of future shining bright
in a loop black and white
in eden's iris of multicolor

in rainbows of our laughter
our lifes, forever us guys
in a loop black and white

is there anything else to say?
you are my my kids and i love you
is there anything else to say?
you are my my kids and i love you

between three oceans silver rocks
and the desert is our place
land of the multicolored iris
land of the people's victory

Opening
Shining
Angel of the Sun
Each Color of the Rainbow
One by one                            
Red
Orange
Yellow
Orange  
Blue
Purple

Dancing together
within the  white crown of unity.
Twinkling and shining
Mirroring the universe within
Yes,  sea of green leaves in a
Breath of the blue azure sky!

Rainbows from violet to magenta
Together within my crystalline gift
Forever within the heart of unity!

My dear Angel of the Sun
You have blessed me with
The fire of life!

A knowing  intuition,
Echoes, we are all
Suns within the Universal Heavens!

Reaching out with her warmth,
"My dear Butterfly, fly!"
"My dear Angel of Sun, thank you."

sarcous knuckles a fierce spirit
one in a ten; death is in it
corona breath like gun fire
hair made of killing barb wire

the saviors won't save you
death found you: fists will erase you
try to get away from
fingernails like razor blades

death is black death is white
made of day made of night
another round another fight
another fight another round

you can't escape them soundz
corona's words are echoing

Trigger Warning* depictions of ****** assault

Beach sands
peeling off a swimsuit
a wet slap
not quite drenched to the bone
yet still a burden
how it sits heavy on the tongue
a humid storm
inside you
heaviness in the prison of my ******
I am trying to pull up my *******
after my friend ***** me
in December
and I'm thinking of how everyone I love
has once hurt me
'moist' is the sound
of his fingers slipping inside me
I am closing my eyes
as the cotton of his shirt clings to my bare legs
and I am thinking that all the wetness must have
teeth
especially the wetness that grows within
and spills out
or chews its way through the skin
and falls onto another's
the night I was *****
everyone laughed
until the walls were moist
until it rained indoors
I say moist
and first, think about two naked bodies
the sound their skin makes
when I try to fight him off
underneath a hungry moon
in a house of warm heat
I saw moist
and think of his tongue against me
the bullet in his brain as I curse him
on a cold December night
the room
my *******
a dark red
I say moist
as in
my own blood spilling in my white ******* moist
or
his fingers moist as he pounded into me
so hard I bled
or my eyes moist when
I told my Momma what that boy had done to me
it felt like winter for ten years.