INHALE

Inhale
Copyright DEC 11, 2008
Word count: 67
Can't quite tell you where this one came from...just couldn't get the words to leave me alone until they were on paper.


Do not hold your breath for me
I have not drifted gently into the ether
I am here, kicking and feral

Save me from the poignant pause...
that oh-so-careful hesitation...

I know what you're thinking,
eyes cannot guard their tongues so well

You hold my rose behind your back
and reach out with the other hand
earnest, supportive, sincere,
but

I.
Am.
Still.
Here.


And I don't think you'll find what you're expecting...
and you may well turn blue before I do.

WORDS TO A FRIEND

Words To A Friend
Copyright APR 7, 2009
Word count: 122
This one just amuses the heck out of me (not so much the circumstances that brought it about, but the phrasing). Believe it or not, almost all of this poem came directly from my side of a messenger conversation with a friend going through a rough patch...as I typed the words, I could feel them just rolling around , clicking like marbles in my head, and it all came together. I dedicate this to Heidi M. -- who should know better...and does. LANGUAGE ADVISORY.


Bullshit.
I'm sorry. Let me rephrase.
Bull. SHIT!

Settling is settling. It is not noble. It is not honest. It is not real.
It's a slow death and you know it.
It's gasping for air in a plastic bag.
It's the osterich, head underground, and a lion
tearing chunks from its ass.
You clutch at shadows, as others catch the flame
...missing what isn't there.

Take a breath, make your choice,
and run with it like a kid with a kite.
Hold up your head.
No one recognizes their soul mate by their shoes.


And one last thing.


Even when The Big Bad Wolf attacks Red Riding Hood
and eats her grandmother...

In the end, when it matters,
SHE'S still the one wearing his skin
casually around her shoulders
in the same place she once wore her cloak.