You're Not There

All I see is the sun and your shape in the door, but you’re not there. 
Your tall, dark frame, 
Your long, gaunt face, 
Your lips like thin ribbons tied together—
You don’t speak, but your eyes say something.
They make apologies for your absence,
Humming beneath my skin,
Extracting secrets I never told you.
I call upon your never-ending wit,
Your quiet consternation,
The way you fumble melodies
And desert anger for harmony.
Your childhood scar,
Your crooked jaw,
Your hands like warm linens gripping mine—
You don't move, but your body speaks volumes.
It clings to the doorway like a dent in the wood,
Softening with the breeze,
Pulling shadows from their hiding places.
I know I've seen your shape in the door, but you're not there.
You have never been
And you never will be.

Far is the Moon

Far is the moon, and twisted is my back.
Her glowing, gauzy gaze crawls up my spine.
She pops my joints out of place,
Bends my bones,
Drags my heavy body across the dirt
And leaves me gasping.
I am changed,
Gnawing on my own foot,
Clawing at the dry ground,
Dripping with the curse of my fathers.

Discovering a Body in a Blackberry Bush

Skin stained in blackberry juice,
His neck clotted in the rubbings of berry flesh
Thorns running across his body,
Tangling around his ankles
This collapsed cage of barbed wire,
Leaves,
Berries,
His eyes wide like blossoms.
Like a stranger, I stared
Until the blood rushed to my face, and I knew.
A wooly arm grabbed my stomach
Dirty fingers crawled inside my mouth
To clutch the scream.

My Brother Died

My brother died in armor,
A cold blade in his side.
His eyes believed the sky to be a painting,
White and black.
My brother died in snow covered cavalry,
A steel ball in his chest.
His arms were bent like crooked arrows,
Still warm, but broken.
My brother died in starving agony,
Only bones and lonely silence.
His heart was just a whisper,
Lifted lightly from his ribcage.
My brother died in torn hospital sheets,
His skin was a breathing organ,
Alive and twitching,
His hands, a map of medicated oceans,
All moving beneath his skin.
All desperate to escape their prisons;
All wanting to be free;
All clinging to the idea that life is something you can hold onto with your fingers;
All worshiping the holy name of my life, my strength, my will;
All ministering to religions that birth chaos in creation;
All withering in the constant hum of wasted youth and apathy;
All wandering through empty halls, crying out for lost memories;
All lusting after brighter days with people who do not know your heart or soul;
All glittering with the marked passion of someone who has lost everything;
All bursting forth with Please! Please! Please! for time to bend to your desire;
All forcing down the bitter taste of never, never knowing--
And all measurable vicissitudes of life were thrown into
The churning sea of his weak heartbeat,
Draining his spirit from his body.
My brother died.
And he said, “Finally.”

breathe

What a deep-wet-underground smothered in quietly-soaked-footfalls
with the bright big sky strangled in steel arms
and that face beaming happy and dark right below the brush
right below the dusky dusk
right inside the lift and drag of
breath
cold sharp bitter sweet habit
inhaling
expanding
kneeling
lungs
dear sky, what secrets are you hiding today?
What mask veiled in the shadow of silent dripping days
can mar the face of Sky?
I am(one breath) closer
I am(two breaths) leaving
I am(three breaths) flying
chilled with beads of broken glass
that live and die in flight
that are fallible and fall
that split their own words and
drift away on seas of wind,
the tangible sky
If dance became the name of nature
her job would be the same
and she would swallow human thought
in steel fingers of earth and sky
that spread like fires in the spirit
that break the rules of cordiality
that loosen knots in human hearts
that simply
breathe

Uprooted

Clinging to the crisp earth like a small changeling tangled in vines and roots, you struggle to breathe as warm dirt is ripped from your very lungs, leaving you unsettled, disgruntled, gasping for a life-source. A sharp talon digs into the small of your back, dragging your alarmed body deeper into the bright, white sky. You hang there, between the earth and open air, and pray for release. Your body is dropped like a fragment of rock, limp and lying on the solid ground. Uprooted, you scramble back beneath the haven of the large oak, the sweet soil curling around you like amniotic fluid. You rest. You breathe, taking in the aroma of undisturbed, damp earth, clothing yourself in nature. Your neighbors, the spiders with their spindly legs skitter frantically into your hair, taking shelter there, whispering their fears into your skin. The hum of dayglow washes over you, rolling through the dirt clods and shaking the foundation of the great white oak. And then silence swallows you between the roots, enveloping, blanketing you in the realization of the natural world.