Storm Is A Brewin'

I can smell the rain
Well before other senses
Discern the coming
Of advancing storms

Odor of fresh earth
So pungent; it is tasted
Hangs heavily
Afterward, rain falls in sheets

Curtain of water
Fall here to shield me from view
Far from prying eyes
Privacy penetrators

I predict in you
A brewing storm of the kind
Most never witness
Nor should sane men wish to see

Tornado-Tempest
Spiraling cloud - Killing wind
Will destroy this house
Resurrected never more

I feel the increase
Breezes whipped up to strong gusts
The storm is upon us
Go now, run to safety ... hide

So I Blinked

Woman with Closed Eyes - Leonardo DaVinci

I've watched over you

Through your darkest hours

When unhappiness

Tore a wound so deep

I could see straight through you

It was too gruesome

To near observe - so I blinked

Turning my head

Just for a little while

To calm my anxiety

When I dared look back

I was stunned-shocked-stricken by
What I did not see

It was empty ...

The place where your heart

... Should have been

Westminster Abbey

Magnificent
Queen of stones, most beloved
Aged woman of more than nine hundred years
Concealing well her maturity
Still solid
She has the look of a well maintained,
Wealthy matron

If she could speak
If she would but cry out
To tell of the
Generations; Generations; Generations
She has seen, felt, heard
Immeasurable, the worshipful prayers uttered here
How many candles lit?
Their melting wax dripping down like the years
Drop-drip-dropping into puddles
On these cool stone floors
Countless the songs from a multitude of voices
Raised in this place as joyful praise
Quiet now - hushed/shushed into whispers
By the unrelenting sleep of the ages

History alive - Breathing still within these walls
Ceremonial services of state
Weddings and Coronations
.Funerals.
Royalty - Dignitaries - Artists - Saints - Heroes
Those who once were fierce rivals in life
Unwilling-Unable to share in earthly glory
All buried close, within this stronghold
All rest as equals now
Lying silent and still
Before their maker

In this sanctuary
Newly aware of my own insignificance
I am nothing more than
A mote of dust
An infinitesimal speck of humanity
Caught between
The here and hereafter

Baby Mama - Stop Your Drama

You have had a bad breakup

But a real friend will tell you

Hard-plain truth

Painful though it may be

I am relating

Only what I have witnessed

I’ll be silent no longer, Girl

Your sweet kids
Are so dear to me

I’ve been watching your children
Slowly dying in silence

As you utter one vindictive
Slashing dagger of a word

After the other

Against their father

Cutting that man to pieces

The Daddy they so dearly love

Baby Mama - Stop your drama

You’re no Queen - Not royalty

This situation

Is no longer about you

You are hurting your children

Yet you refuse to see

Poisoning your children’s minds

Trying to turn them
Away from their Dad

By telling them lies
So ugly - so vile

Because of your bitterness

Still, oh so angry
So filled with hating-hurt

Your words are abusive and

Oh, so wrong

Baby Mama - Stop your drama

You’re my friend – yet even I can see

This situation

Is no longer about you

You are killing your children

Yet you refuse to see

The hurt you inflict

Will grow them into

Adults who are broken

Incapable of loving
Don’t you realize that children

Need both of their parents?

They are not traitors

For loving their Dad

So Baby Mama – Stop your drama

You’re no Queen - Not royalty

This situation

Is no longer about you

You are destroying your children

Yet you refuse to see

Blessing for Your Marriage

Heartfelt blessings for the

Happiness of this union

As two independent vines

Intertwine

To grow  

As one

With the culmination of your love into marriage

You may feel your delight has reached its zenith

However, I pray it will continue to multiply

With the passing of each day

May your bride

Find in you the hero of her existence

Her truest soul’s affectionate friend                                              

In the depth of her attachment

May her passionate flame

Burn solely for you, her husband

As a man worthy of her respect

Fidelity and allegiance

May your groom

Increase in fondness daily

As a husbandman takes great care

With a soft and gentle shoot

Tended to with tenderness

May your husband’s love

Protect, cover and keep you in safety

With his passion solely for you, his wife

His most devoted friendship freely shared

All of your days

Freedom Precious

You pushed me out

To seek freedom precious

I, just the mill stone

Whose dull-boring dead weight

Dragged the “we” of us

To an untimely grave

Longing … No, lusting for

Life on your own terms

Adrenaline junkie; seeking novelty

Abhorring the sameness by

Worshiping the rush

Craven, craving ever driven

To locate your next hit

No rest from addiction

Or the thrill of the chase

Crater in your soul

Where selfishness

Pools deeply

Uncaring, hollow man-husk

Long line of your victims

Deal with the fall out

Left in the wake

Of the destruction you are

Snapshot

I still have the snapshot,

Although it is a mental one,

It shows where I was standing

The clothes I was wearing

When I first admitted

My secret to my truest self

That I loved you – oh, so loved you

Nothing else mattered

Timeworn that snapshot

Though still clear in my mind’s eye

My affection remains unrequited
Never once reciprocated
In the many long years since

How dare I reveal now

Such a secret to my truest self?

My adoration is undimmed

Resolute - enduring - constant

Nothing else matters – for I love you,
Oh so richly-deeply love you, even still

Gunslinger Grouchy




Annie Oakley - "Little Sure Shot"
 Her wise husband understood she "needed space" when experiencing PMS

 

So tired am I today

Weary from worry

Worn down to a frayed nub

Warped by sleep’s deprivation

Into my agitated worst self

Whom even I cannot stand

Haggard woman, I detest you

Sauntering toward me in the mirror

Like a gunslinger with a grudge

A hair-trigger finger at the ready

Irked at the whole world

For no reason at all

I am hormonally homicidal

Ignore the viper
Into which I have hatched, please

For your safety; I implore you

Let me crawl under the covers

To endure my mood crazed meanderings

This jumbled stir of estrogen-progesterone
Chemical soup that defines me as a woman
Last - nerve - plucked - jangled
Inner combat zone

For My Would Be Suitor

The Persistent Suitor - Frederico Andreotti

When affection first blossomed here

The springing growth did catch me

Completely off guard - so unaware

No kernel was planted within my sight

I, ignorant of its forming

As an unspoken, germinating seedling

Growing between us

How could this be?

When infatuation first unfolded here

I battled hard; clawing, yes, brawling

Fighting mad - drawing blood

As I only imagine

Wild animals do battle

Insanely bent; crazy never to be caught

Not to be erased – slaughtered – laid waste

Dissolved – coalesced to one half of a duo

So struggled I, valiantly

For my one and only life

When devotion first announced herself

Unbidden, unwanted, unwelcome, unwarranted

I felt hemmed in

By arm's caged embrace

I was lethally brutal

Poisonously severe

No gambling coquette, I

Rejected you outright

Chased you from my borders

Bade you not return

Go now,

Would be suitor

I ask nothing from you

Except for your absence

I desire nothing else

But your exit from

These premises
Leave me now, kind Sir

To live alone in peace

Go now,

Find a woman

Who might treasure, love, adore you

As I am not she

And never will be

The Silent Treatment

I will not wish for death

For I experience it early

As a trailer … the preview

While I still desolately live

As intruder in my own home

I feel the sickening-prickles of

Your porcupine anger pointed out toward me

As sharpened pikes from each pore you possess

Proud recipient of your infamous,

Ill humored “Silent Treatment”

It has again come my way

As I anticipated it would

Smugly cloaked in your heat
Isolated - yet happy to be so

So self-righteously angry
As you revel in its warmth

You mutely glower; emanating loathing

Caught up in your own wrath
You are, unaware of my decision
Deliberated with much pain, yet so final 

I will coldly abandon you
With frigid arctic zeal

I will leave you to live, inexorably alone
I forsake you to immerse yourself
In the prolific silence
You have so masterfully crafted with care

You will be at liberty
To self-indulge in your
"Silent Treatment"
As often as you wish
I hope it may be
As much a "treat" for you,
As it has been for me

For silence will be
Your sole companion now

House Lions Fierce We

Kitty kitty - mumblebus grumblebus

Complaining chorus; we like not to wait

Want want - nomsy food now; why bowl not full ups?

Silly woman up your hurry; you so slow - we irate

Catty catty – sleepsings; we needs more of
mousy dreamings; sweet spot on bed we

tiredness day - night long the stretchingnesses

Warm warm - we yawning pile purring pretzels

Pillows soft we likes – after sleeps, naps wants all we

Love love - we can do; if mood strikes our fancies

Her woman keep guessing; say all of we

Knead knead - her so comfy lap; stay here, maybe

house lions fierce we; elfin tigers be

It's About Time

Time ...
by virtue of your very nature

you wait for no man

jitteringly anxious – agitating for advance

irritating in your inability to sit idle

irksome, your incessant need to pace the floor

forthandback; backandforth

‘til the boards groan and squeak

the planks of this stage

grown weathered and weary

their varnish worn thin from

your too vigilant patrol

Tick ...

Constantly counting

monotonous metronome

tock-ticking spigot

whose drip-dropping dribbles

of seconds and minutes

will find no repair

forming puddles which transform

young poets and writers

to blathering old blethers

retelling – rehashing; repeating/repeating

the same tired prose

‘til their tongues turn to wood
Tock ...
idealistic youths

so energetic and vital

microscopically changed

through course of each day

to curmudgeonly crabby crusts  

of stale, inedible  bread

Tick ...

you have corroded
majestic deep purple
mystic cloud living mountains

mercilessly
ground-pulverized them to

boulders – stones - pebbles – sand
Tock ...

even our bodies, not spared the same fate

as you scrunched-hunched our very bones

to aching gnarled twigs

brittle hardened pipes

of  living cement

Time ...
onward you will steam roll
straight through; then far past me
when I will be liberated
from your infernal marching
freely floating from fetters
a fluttering bubble
drifting on the breath
of eternity's wind

For Kathryn

Friend of so many years

you stand at a crossroads

stymied in a place

where indecision reigns

I stand as mute witness

to your courageous struggle

frozen by a sense of helplessness

not knowing what to say or do

I long to help you

yet I lack the skills or strength

to make all things better

to chase away the dragons
to sweep out the corners
where scary spiders dwell

I'd smooth out any bumps

over which you might stumble
but I too am unsure
as to which path you will choose

So know, my dear friend

if I could wave a magic wand

to make all things better
to give you clear foresight

with not a heartbeat's hesitation

I would, dear
I would

Pas De Deux (Dance of Two)

a new song today

the lyrics of life renew

enchanted by melody

solitude is bid adieu

a fine tune to dance

the waltz step of lovers true

allegro three quarter time

joyous, this pas de deux

Buzz of a Gossip

"Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you."  ~ Spanish Proverb

you were my friend,

or so I thought,

until you buzzed … buzzed … buzzed

about me to someone lethal

who waited on tenderhooks
eagerly anxious to hear

your acid tongue

burning me to bits

your cutting words

razor-edged axes

hacked-chopped-minced  

me to pieces

buzz … buzz … buzz

you chummed the waters with me

luring in the

slowly circling sharks

which fed on me with frenzied fury

who whirl-whipped water
of white foamed waves

to pinkish froth

by the letting of my

life’s blood

since your final betrayal
I have taken shears in hand
clipping out - your diseased tongue 

by mercilessly pruning away
the hulking dead growth you are
from my life

buzz … buzz … buzz
you will sell my confidences 

to the highest bidder
no more

In Blue Eyes

losing myself

in blue eyes

which plunge

the very essence of me

to unfathomable depths

of azure

hurled to highest stratosphere

a human rocket

launched by penetrating gaze

of cobalt light sky

surrendering to

blue eyes

where dark lashes dart

flit - soar - dance

as birds above whitecapped waves                    

on twin sapphire seas