She Can’t See She

Like west coast weather,
Moods change and swing,
Rearranging things,
So the whole landscape
Is cast into a different light,
Not wrong or right,
But hard to follow,
To be prepared,
Never knowing
If moments shared,
Will somehow implode,
At the same time drawn
To beauty showed,
Beyond compare,
Beauty anchored deep,
In heart and soul,
But when black dogs howl,
She doesn’t always know it’s there.

Natural States

See it as you will,
It’s in no way wrong or right,
Just due to who I am, how I’m made,
I’m firmly anchored in the light,
It’s no fight to stay here,
Just an act of nature,
As is your dance with darkness,
Doh-see-dohing twixt night and day,
Keeping black dogs at bay,
Not a choice, but a natural state,
To which I can sometimes relate,
Though not really understand,
Still,
I can stretch forth my hand…….

My Father’s Eyes

Forecast calls for sun. It should be sunny, but it Rains disappointment.

Mine are just like his.
His pale blue eyes.
Once so clear. So bright.
Beautiful and electric.
Now faded and dull.
Cold blue discs floating
In a bloodshot sea.
An icy ocean chummed
For sharks beneath.
Blood vessels floating
And bobbing like dead fish
On the surface.
The last time I looked
In those eyes, in that sea,
My heart froze.
And then it burned.
For there was his soul
At the very bottom.
Rock bottom.
Unable to surface.
Drowning.
Save me, it whispers
Help me.
So in I’ll dive.
And down I’ll sink.
Past the bloody surface.
Into the cold darkness
To find his soul.
I’ll hold it tight and swim.
And the sea will become clearer.
And bluer, sparkling blue.
And we’ll emerge.
His soul and mine.
Together.
And the sea,
Will be beautiful again.
His eyes as pale blue,
As a summer sky.

Winner of the Poetry Palace Perfect Poet Award Week 50. 

The Sadness Worm (v.1)

I came across this the other day when I was going through some old Word documents on my computer’s hard drive. There was a mysterious file named “Poetry,” which contained, among other things, the original free-verse version of “The Sadness Worm,” which I thought had been lost forever. 

The green worm that lives in sadness,
Wants to find a human heart.

For it craves the taste of it the most.
So very bitter the taste of sadness is.

And no wonder.
The bitterness is the worm you taste.

Its bitterness is the poison of sadness.
The sadness worm is made of it.

A parasite that lodges in your heart,
Eating and eating it all away.

Each time you swallow bitterness,
You swallow the sadness worm.

It eats and eats and eats your heart,
Until it is all gone.

And only a lump of sadness remains.