How I Love You

I cannot offer you roses or chocolate to embody my love
For my love is like the shadow cast by the sun
It disguises the things you hate both below and above
Darkens the wrinkles and hides the blemishes others shun

I love you as a river that outgrows its banks
But floods the drought in the valleys and plains
It shields against the attacks from doubt on your flanks
Covering the mist of dire fragrances that disdain

I love you like my spirit needs to breathe
It is like the wind or the blossoms or the paths of seasons
My soul cannot exist without your sheathe

I love you like my heart cannot help but do
It is like a pulse or the sunrise or the pattern of oceans
My soul cannot survive without loving you

I cannot offer you diamonds or land to symbolize my love
For my love is like a wave caressing your shore
It washes the sands and shells that you are weary of
Consumes the footsteps and castles that your enemies adore

I love you as an orchard that yields fresh fruit
Covers the ground with many anxious seeds
It grows and is robust with rich deep roots
Dividing wisely the harvest between wants and needs

Your Words

Words lay fossilized on the paths of your yesterday’s dreams
Crystallized by the sepulcher of destiny’s redeeming streams
They reappear when you open the hidden closets in your vaults
Whispering when you are hoping they have ridden the impure thoughts
They echo when you are storing your baggage in the cellars
Knowing when you are whoring rages sin dwellers
Nouns use verbs to dance into your wildest nightmares
They take herbs to prance on the manifest software
But when the sun breaks your eyelids combination they still sing
The darkness aches and forbids relaxation until they sting
You look at me the silence cuts the air like a sword
You took the resilience but the stares speak every word

Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind

I drank seven gallons of cooled holy water
Turned up the AC cause the room was getting hotter and hotter
Prayed and fasted until my heart was too weak and numb
Rubbed Ben Gay on my soul until my tongue was dumb
Still the remedy I can never find
Cause I just can’t get you off of my mind
I got into a good book so deep
Watched movies until I was too wired to sleep
Danced in the mirror until my muscles went weak
Sang love songs to your picture until I could not speak
Got drunk off of dreams and bottle of red wine
Still can’t you get you off of my mind
I ate a whole strawberry cheesecake
Sat in the sauna until my dreams were baked
Jogged in the park until my legs fell off
Drew until the walls began to scoff
Stared at your cards until I went blind
Cause I can’t get you off of my mind
I wrote my thoughts on reams of paper
Rode taxis and trains and toured skyscrapers
Surfed the internet until my fingers bled
Repeated your words until the ceiling echoed what was said
Still the cure is never found and never kind
Cause I just can’t get you off of my mind

My Desire

I want to breathe my words on your neck
Kiss the borders of your soul as it dreams
And dance with you on an ocean liner’s deck
Whisper thoughts to beat your ear drum beams
I want to climb your mountain to its peak
Swim in your ocean until my soul drowns
And walk in your forest until my heart can’t speak
Ascend the path of your love and never come down
I want to trace the outline of your skin
Taste the scents that hide behind your mind
Soar to your heavens and glide slide again and again
Until ecstasy, paradise, perfect bliss we both find
I want to roam in the jungles of your feelings
Discover treasures that even you don’t know of
Caress the joy that you have been concealing
And celebrate the glory, the light, the warmth of our love
I want to kiss your shapes and curvatures
Listen to your laughter and your moans
Rejoice to the paths of our adventures
Attend to every subtle muscle every rigid bone
I want to make love to you like the waves do the shore
Splashing thrashing wet and wild or gentle and slow
I want to make love to you until we can do no more
Then hold you and breathe on your neck so my love you will know

A Man, Amend, Amen

Wilted by the weight of time,
Wrinkles form where once dreams were.
Prayers cover him blanket his arctic circles,
Broken and restored by love.
He sits on the porch or by the window his front seat to the world.
Cataracts alter his vision of the day,
Distant shadows of friends block his mind from the sun.
The silent sky is dreadfully still,
Then there is a whisper of wind,
To a man.

Leaves leap from the grasp of trees,
Leaving the arms barren and naked.
Blanketing the ground in yellow and orange,
Abandoned and betrayed by time.
They rest dying on the earth transforming into dry brownness.
Chlorophyll, a dream of yesterdays,
Secluded clouds shroud the world from the sun.
The ground is terribly still,
Then there is a murmur of wind,
To amend.

Dried soil forgotten by seasons of green,
Creased by the movement of breezes.
Entreaties expound beyond the limits of limbs,
Embraced and cherished by life.
They dance in the earth and on the windows,
Copulation of hope and tomorrows,
Sheltered secrets open the vaults of warmth from the sun.
The hushed sky is awfully still,
Then there is a rumor of wind,
Amen.
Amen.

Clearly

Tears flowed like wine,
On pristine white floors,
Leaving fresh stains with each new spring.
Nurse’s hands leave imprints on my shoulders.
The symphony of monitors still shadow my memory.
Your body wilted,
Your eyes numb,
Your mouth screaming silence.
This seat next to you,
My new home of four legs.
I sing,
I remember,
I pray,
The doctors don’t hear,
Perhaps God doesn’t either,
You hear,
You sigh deeply.
Others hear air,
I clearly heard you loved me.

The leak in my spirit starts again,
On freshly waxed floors,
Leaving a new lake at my feet.
Pastor’s words leave echoes on my soul,
Cries of the IV whisper to my ghosts.
Your body still,
Your ears barren,
Your hands dancing in dreams.
This seat next to you,
Has become my bed.
I think,
I hope,
I pray,
Family does not feel your pulse,
Perhaps God doesn’t either.
You feel,
You move your fingers in my grasp,
Others remain anesthetized,
I clearly felt you hug me.

The Silhouette of Shores

Skipping stones across dream’s wide lake,
Skimming the surface of soul-full disdain,
Holding the essence of life in my hands,
Then letting it soar, far, to the other shore.
Concentric ripples resonant in the still water.
Broken whispers echo,
Cracking this pottery of poetry,
Fragile like liquid’s face yet so deep.
Ancient rocks swim to the bottom of darkness.
Flattened smoothed by time, wind, the churning of earth,
Ideas and hopes take flight through the air.
The friction of water kisses them with each touch.
Cold seemingly lifeless stones,
Holding onto the power that released them.
Even the gravity you place on their roundness,
Will not prevent them from reaching,
Their destiny.