We kept it light
You and I
Wrapped friendship around moments
Of lavender and tea roses
Treasures unearthed in lazy afternoons
Morel s and the damp lull of pines wafting through
An open window
Trading simple things
You were light
Filtered through antique lace curtains
Thoughts of you melt sweet
Chocolate chips held tight in small hands
Smiling for the moment
Until the residue is wiped clean

You are gone
But never forgotten
I will see you in sunsets and surf
And the way the rain falls steady
In late spring
When the light is soft behind the clouds
You never shied from the rumbling storm
When I raged and railed against the breaker walls
You were the calm
You held the tide
Even when the deluge started to take you
I could sense it in the pull of deeper moments
You said we’re all on a journey
And you left your legacy etched in my soul
Open the window a little wider
And embrace the sky

I will think of you always
And treasures
And the sea
Conch shells and mermaids
Surf against the sand
I will keep the light

March 2013

For Pat Brodniak-Carbonaro “ Seanymph”

And when I'm hurlin words and throwing blows  
Thumping drumbeats against my chest
I long to fall in your arms like a frightened child
And let you rock me to rest  

Inside outside upside down
Confusion coiled around me tight
This crawling terror got me paralyzed
I'm defenseless in this fight

All the frenemies and the wannabes
Levelin those guns at my head
Spillin  gasoline on a grass fire
Ain't no life with the walking dead

Then through all the noise inside my head
Your whispered wisdom rings out to me
Send that white flag up and surrender
Cuz I have come to set you free
TL Boehm
03/17/13

You are never happy
Again, he chants the sad mantra
Of a life spun out in threadbare patches
Pain etched in weathered eyes
Gray green like late summer grass
Burned by the whirring blade
Again she says…if only we were friends
Under breath held to quell the deluge of
I can’t be your everything
Then anything
You ever were is nothing
In the soft blur of days that drip
Empty windows scarred with the memory of
Rain.
And I
Am so brittle
Harsh light behind your eyes
Hostility disguised as loving correction
The caress of fire on kindling
My petty dreams the memory of smoke in your lungs
Just breathe me in
Shallow
Ripples across this thin skin
Break the surface tension
I ache to be something more than
Empty words
Penciled afterthoughts in margins
Eventually illegible
In the steady decay of days
I am never happy
Lost in the transience of you
03/11/13 TLB

Perhaps it was the blasphemy of lovers and fools
This dalliance of ravens and necromancy
The brush of pomegranate mouths
Amaranthine against the backdrop of ochre and tintype
I dance the silent rhythm
Innate the rush of blood in veins
Salome
I am your feathered death on prism wings
Small consolation you cannot see the soul beneath the veil
Spin a legacy of heretics starry eyed and hungry
For flesh and soft skin
Spills the stain on pristine canvas
The palette of indiscretions
Peep show intimacies
Vibrant I am unfettered light
And you are blind
In black and white and gray
You twist this myth
Ropes coiled serpentine
Hungry eyed you feed on dreams
Cellulose crackling in the heat
Borne on desert winds
I rise to claim you
I am the moment
Pigment and poetry
Alive and fluid in your mind
Inescapable
Whisper my name
Salome
031113

Pretty girl with stars in your eyes
And the world at your feet.
You never gave another breath about me did you?
You never thought about the consequences.
Sad little awkward one that I was
With my toothy smile
Face peppered with freckles and imperfections.
You took the first chance you got
Grabbed that ring
Drank that koolaide
Whatever the mechanism was
You swallowed faster than a desperate pledge at a frat party
You’re on that perpetual joy ride
And I am left alone
To drown in the gray desperation that is my glass ceiling life.
How can you breathe in the thin air of your rarified sky?
I think of you and I hate you
like I hate burying a kid’s first puppy.
You left me with nothing
But an open wound where my soul should have been.
You can’t come back
And I can’t rise above
This little existence I’ve dug out with my own jagged nails
Hell may be too good for you but at least I know
The monster in the mirror is more real
Than that illusion of angels
I thought I saw in your eyes. Love is a witch of a mistress
You taught me well
TLB 031313

Your voice fell in whispers
With the cadence of rain
Thrumming against the windowpanes
The rush of mourning doves
And albatross dreams
I am the storm tossed
Sea inside
Angry skies
Breathe me in
And I become gravid
With the weight of your soul
You are cool blue water
Gentle surf teases
This fractured shoreline
Scuttle up ancient things
The tide brings both sorrow
And exaltation
Let me drown in you now
Carry me out to the depth of you
Lift the anchor
And cast me away
03/14/13

I am falling
Carded wool and eiderdown
Muted hues in the resonant ghost of you
My words drift
Shadow soft before the deluge
Of an angry sky
I pray for rain
Even though I cower under cover of your grace
Myriad tears from heaven broken
Etch the epitaph and rune stones
Twist the light to brazen
Blanched in acid
Your brilliance blinds me
Sunlight spilled on fallow ground
I am soaked to the marrow
Weathered and weary
An the abyss whispers ever closer
Embrace the profane till the flesh burns ashen
Nati sumus solus et nos solus perire
Deo autem non est sine interiori lumine
You follow me sombrous through the maelstrom
Trade my hueless soul
For the ecstasy of light
In raptu lumine vestit me


we are born alone and we die alone
Without God there is no internal light
Clothe me in the ecstasy of light

TL Boehm
11/13/2012