Fading...

"Hey you, out there in the cold

Getting lonely, getting old

Can you feel me?

Hey you, standing in the aisles

With itchy feet and fading smiles

Can you feel me?

Hey you, don't help them to bury the light

Don't give in without a fight.”  -Pink Floyd

chasing shadows

She chases shadows knowing it is all just a fleeting gasp
and a dark silhouette with no substance or form.
He told her she should write it but that too
escapes her and leaves her chasing the ephemeral and the
tangible at once until she can grasp each
and make them into one.
Even though she knows when she seizes one the other
will be lost.
Yet she persists with hope against hope that for one
brief moment she will capture the shadowy dusk and know
how it feels to embrace the impossible.

1-1-11

 As I drifted off to sleep

the sounds of the incoming

New Year kept me awake.

I lay counting the gentle

raindrops that began to fall

Sirens, thunder, fireworks,

then hard, heavy rain

pounding furiously; the

drops too numerous to

count.  Floating in and

out of sleep while bits of

dreams flashed…

a wink, a kiss,

a million fireworks…

through it all there

came the plaintive

cry of a frightened

animal pleading

to be rescued.

subterranean

Rode the elevator seven floors down

And walked outside to palm trees

And cool breezes.

There was a bus there waiting for me

Inside the bus were donkeys

And elephants

And dainty ballerinas stretching and

Preening

I started to leave until a hand reached out and touched my arm

I turned to find a man who looked

Like Bob Dylan but told me his name was Jose.

He led me to a seat beside him

We rode in silence ignoring the circus animals

And their wild commotion.

At a park the bus stopped and let

Jose and I exit leaving the noise

And smells behind

We walked to a bench and sat across

From each other.

His brown eyes held the weight of the world

But his voice transported me to a quiet place

Where I could breathe

He asked if he could help me, ease my burden,

Calm the tumult in my soul

I smiled and asked him if he had the credentials to perform such magic.

He laughed at my innocence and told me

All he could do was be there and

Watch me spin into the wind and

Minister to my wounds when I tumble and fall.

I thanked him and said that would do just fine

Until I learned to catch the wind

And soar on my own.

The bus returned and took us back

To where we had begun.

I left the unruly circus crowd and my friend

Jose to ride the elevator back up the seven

Floors to where I lived. The doors slowly opened

And I walked outside to face the storm.

under his wing

The man she used to love

stood outside her window

offering tea and oranges.

 He wrote a message

on the back of a maple leaf

ripping it from the tree

and letting the wind take

It from his fingers.

The same message was

written in braille on his

wrist and all she had to

do was take his hand

and touch the words

with her fingertips.

Instead she let her hand

rest on the smooth

bodhi seeds and glide

past the turquoise bead.

She felt the words enter her

heart and  take hold

growing wings and flying

out of her chest…out of the window…

past the man she used to love

and finally soaring up toward

grey clouds and

disappearing forever.

Mickey G

 Mickey G. and me are lovers.

We are kissing under the stars.

His car will not run.

He fears I won’t love him,

so he chooses another.

She is strange and foreign.

Transvestites wearing pearls

crowd into the dimly-lit room.

I scurry away to the boulevard

where every person wears red.

Mikey G finds me there dressed in blue.

He holds me tight and

we float  into morning on a river of

sheets and pillows.

your voice

In my dream I was navigating uncharted territory,

totally susceptible to the influence of the full moon.

 In a small vessel floating through tainted waters,

I heard echoes of your voice and what you once said to me.

I tried to follow your voice in the distance but I can’t reach you.

Maybe you’re not there; it’s only your words shattering my soul.

 My boat takes me far out in to the crystal ocean, still and calm.

 Your song has ended but I hear moonbeams floating on the waves,

and the soft pleas of all the lost begging to be found.

I wait in my tiny vessel. I wait for time, I wait for change,

I wait…

Day 2

Under close scrutiny

she came unraveled

trying to hold secrets

that weren't hers to keep.

Poked and prodded by

strange instruments meant

to cure her of her ills,

she receded further into

silence.

Dreams of gnarled hands,

poisonous snakes and

paths that never end

haunted her sleep.

Her only plan was

to return to the

edge of the precipice

and hope for

forward motion.

Saturday afternoon's dream

In a flurry of activity and a cacophony of chatter

all of the family congregated in the kitchen for a reunion,

the aunts and uncles and cousins

and even the distant relatives that you only see every few years.

Everyone was there except me.

I sat in my room across town looking for my shoe.

My mother finally came to help me and admonished me

for losing my clothes and keeping

the clan waiting for so long.

Finally her frustration at me reached a breaking point

and she began to place boards over my windows and

doors, nailing them to the walls.

When she finished we sat and looked at each other

and came to the realization that we were captives together.