Falling backwards- Never mind where from,
it could have happened anywhere
you stood.
The dark water below is so vast that
the only word that can describe it's volume
is open.
Landing on its surface, like a crucifix
you sink forever downward, but
otherwise still.
There is no end to its depth,
but increasingly crushing the farther
you drown.

Today Grandma sinks in the seat, and smiles

at the fake trees, while the black
and brown crosses that hang over
her  shoulders as cancer calls her name underneath.

Holding the heartbeat monitor with her eyes,
the priest says "she's been cleansed, she's been cleansed,
it'll be alright, it'll be alright,

She's God's favorite."

Today in the mirror,
her
reflection removed from
her
beauty she once written with
her
lipstick, yes,

beside her
coffin, I mean bed.

the doctors notes declare
her
hope as thin as a paper cut,
the smell of fake smiles and dreamy prayers
stain the white walls, but with the families
tears run like razor-blades against the
skin, this may get better,

She still sits serenaded by silence,
baptized into a cloud of gloom.

Today it feels like a black Christmas, but with
a green moon, and red stars, and weak blue angels,

Gee, thanks, oh young Mary, for all of today.

We parted our ways
I wanted to go with you
But my chaotic mind pulled me to a different direction.

A hug is now a dream
A kiss is like a star
I see your thoughts like an ocean
I hear your voice like the wind

But I never give up on my dreams
I won't stop reaching for the star
I will take the risk of crossing the ocean
I will hear the wind through my heart

So can you wait for me there in my favorite place the far side of eternal?

After Their Divorce

In his garage he takes a break, and sits
Among all the mechanical debris
Of an inventor born a century late:
Unsorted hopes, tools, dreams, and engine parts

The project car that he and his son will never
Rebuild together on Sunday afternoons
An old guitar, an ashtray full of ends
A midden of beer cans crushed in memories

He should be loading his truck and trailer, but
In his garage, in bitterness, he waits