A Reason to Listen

I couldn’t see the snakes. When they came at night, Puffing and hissing around my bed. I slept on the ground Without a light Other than the stars. Glowing softly over my head. Beauty above. Death below. To sleep was an act of faith. Closing your eyes When well you know That fangs are coming. And sooner or later, you have to pee, Wearing chains.     Such a life does something to you. It...

Freedom covered me in bubble wrap To protect me from life Because that stuff would surely kill me. It took a while before it was safe to feel again. To look at my face in the mirror and count the bruises. It took a while before I believed That smiles were not a disguise To hide evil.   Freedom didn’t come with a map To help me find my way back home, Or to navigate...

I’m untouchable. People think my shadow Has PTSD land mines. They keep their distance, Heads down, Safe behind the line Of yellow Traumatic Hazard Tape. No one wants to get blown to hell. Look what it did to me.   Life gave me chains To wear on my ankles. I broke them and made wind chimes. They sing how the breeze doesn’t blow back But forward. That love always rhymes. I have my storms. Depressions...

Minding I was just minding my own business Just standing out there on the docks Lost in a long list of long lost thoughts Thinking of various clocks Counting the sums And cursing some And wondering when my ship would come… in Was it a crime to just stand there Was it some kind of a… sin? Staring into that particular darkness Of calm waters at dusk When something flashed Out from a splash in...

“Rhyme is meaning,” my therapist said. “Find happiness in words of joy’s bright spark.” “Poetry’s a spell that can raise the dead.” “Why are your poems always so dark?”   I responded:   My mind’s a buzz like the busy bees of Spring. Yet I can’t pen words of love, sun or flowers true. I find the sweetness of bees is in their sting. As a colour, joy won’t blend well with my shades of...

Rhythm. I knew it before I knew light; Learned from my mother’s heartbeat, Resounding in the darkness where I was knit together. Rhyme. I knew it before I had breath; My own heart mimicking hers, Rising and falling to the cadence of her pulse. Reason. Carried in life’s blood, it nourished me, Passing into my body through that membrane of love, Whose scar we all bear. Rhyme, rhythm and reason formed me in the womb....

It was the smile that got me thinking There was no bitterness No resentment No tension between us She kindly spoke With a voice gentle And undemanding “Have a nice day” To which I returned “Thanks, you too” As I took my receipt And walked out of the FedEx office exactly eleven point six pounds lighter than when I’d gone in   “Have a nice day” It wasn’t a commandment to be obeyed Issued from...

Man, you could build a whole brand around this thing Handle the snakes And orchestrate all kinds of glittery manifestations Jittery hands and holy demonstrations Slippery tongues and wordless intonations Oh you don’t speak em? Just take some words and tweak em That’s right, that’s the ticket Show it to the man at the door And he’ll tell you where to stick it But just between you and me? Forget it It’s not a brand...

I see you out walking Holding a mirror beneath your eyes So you can look downward into the skies One step at a time all the way home Careful not to go near the sun’s heat For fear of burning your tender feet Using cooler clouds for stepping stones   I see you out walking I see you flying your kite in the park I see you scribbling your notes in the dark I see...

The room itself? There never was much light in there So when I tell you what happened I hope you’ll cut me some slack But as I stood in this room today That I had known so well for my entire life That chair in the corner The bed against the far wall How many times did I collapse on both? A heaping pile of angst Or bellowing laughter contagious like dust Never once noticing...