#11: dominique

Lately, I’m in silence either holding up my head
Or flattening the middle of a pillow on my bed
Thoughts are fish in water and my brain, a riverbed
Flowing in a river to an ocean up ahead
Once I had a lover, and he wondered why I fled
Thought I met another greater lover I would wed
“I was with the fish inside myself” is what I said
“Looking for the ones I knew and some I hadn’t fed”
I will always wonder how his thoughts could be misled
The place he could have found me writing poetry instead
But lovers think we’re characters from stories they have read
Don’t believe the music from the oceans up ahead
Lately, I’m in silence in a space where I was led
I see countless colors, moving pictures in my head
Words for certain feelings, if they’re out there, must be dead
I draw and paint as if I had important news to spread
But I’m an artist human and I struggle where I’ve bled
And I believe the water that is floating overhead

#12: zombies can dance

My first commission, for the daughter of a neighbor

#13: wolf heart

ALL EXITS ARE ENTRANCES
I stand inside a giant room
I scream then hear my echoes boom
And run a distance far and fast
As quick as lightning bolts might last
They disappear, then all I do
Is learn to find my green and blue

Surrounding me like stone or steel
Heavy like the way I feel
Exit signs are flashing red
Something once alive is dead
Gone, erased, or in the way
Something used, then thrown away
If I stay, I won’t be seen,
Pressed and stapled in between,
Nor understood, nor heard at all
Like I’m behind a waterfall
But then I think, as silence looms,
Red exits lead to other rooms

Dad said once to count to five
Then take a risk and be alive
Otherwise a soul might crack
Pick an exit. Don’t look back
Say goodbye, but hear hello
I think of him and off I go
Am I strong for open air?
Brave enough to be aware?
Other rooms count future days
Exit signs are entryways

#14: found

Splash of light come take me down
Help me dream before I drown
If you come to change my mind
Free up space for things I’ll find
If you send me somewhere soon
Journey to the sun or moon
Galaxies I’ve never seen
Send me somewhere in between
Put me in a place or game
Somewhere fresh without a name
I’ll catch fire, leave the ground
Learn to fly before I’m found

#15: try

Truth will see her body sing
Twilight summer mixed with spring
On herself she casts a spell
Felt in ev’ry single cell
Who is she without her dance?
Music, movement, circumstance?
Who am I without a pen?
Or paperless? Who am I then?
A block of cells and molecules
A robot boy who follows rules
Or joy an empty canvas brings
Who am I without those things?

#16: sujaa

Get your fingers off keyboards
And dig them into the earth
Put them on someone’s shoulders
Interlace them with the fingers of another
Feel the earth with your bare hands
What does the soil feel like?

#17: healing moon

I recall driving at midnight
A segment of summer in June
Broke through a level of healing
With Jupiter next to the moon
What seemed like a bulletproof ceiling
Disappeared or dissolved in a flash
Like it was the surface of water
And I made a dive with no splash
I noticed you swim far from people
No matter the love that you feel
Some don’t deserve to be near you
To sever some ties is to heal
She was the moon on that midnight
And, breaking through, I was the breeze
Who do you fear?
All the witches?
Or those who would hang them from trees?

#18: fleur de nelles

Sometimes all I need from you
A mix of purple, green, and blue
A visit while I’m sleeping, too,
Inside a dream or two.

Hold me for a little while
Laugh and let me catch your smile
Move around, old country style
And tell me what to do

Just like you, I tend to sway
Break some rules along the way
Do my work but try to play
And have a point of view

Crash into my diamond doubt
Give me stuff to think about
Turn the riddles inside out
The circuitry of you

#19: reach

What if no one took the chance
To reach beyond an edge?
How you reach defines your dance
Or so the wise allege
People cry or laugh or gasp
At those who stretch and climb
If it’s not beyond your grasp
It isn’t worth your time

#20: future fish

Grief and the guardian human I miss
Chronic condition and arctic abyss
Isn’t there something more certain than this?
Phantoms and ghosts that seem trapped in a space
Unlock a door, set ‘em loose in this place
Guardian spirit I long to embrace
We’ll meet again in a future at sea
Swimming together, my father and me
We will be fish in the visions I see…