During the day
You can barely be seen
But in darkness
You call
To all manner of things
-a.r.
Artwork by Natalie Shau
Porch Light
•August 31, 2016 • 3 CommentsNervous
•August 29, 2016 • 3 CommentsThis tickle
Burns and ripples
The nerves
A cracking whip
That whisper
Turned to prickle
The system breaks
Beneath His grip
-a.r.
Artwork: The Grip, by Bindii on deviantart.com
Shadows
•August 16, 2016 • Leave a CommentThere’s a notch
On the stairs
Where something
Hit there
What fell
Or who
Was pushed
-a.r.
Because I can feel the fall coming…
Mine
•August 1, 2016 • 3 CommentsI’ve a carousel horse
Corralled in my back yard
I keep the gate closed
So he cannot get far
Loosed from his go ’round
But locked square in place
Tasked with keeping that bit
Painted smile on his face
-a.r.
Photograph by Brooke Shaden
BtFD
•June 29, 2016 • Leave a CommentThis life is too quick
To live less than fierce or leave
Sweet wax on the wick
-a.r.
Digital Art: Candle by vincenthachen on deviantart.com
Deviant Sea
•June 28, 2016 • Leave a CommentI have been living, drowning
Dry
Learning to feel helpless, trust
Filling
Lungs with something like fear, liquid love
Burning
Tissue never meant to swim like that, this
Coughing
Spitting out air-shards of shoulds, shame
Flailing
For some buoyant ring of steady, sameness
Treading
With my eyes trained, tired of trying
Letting go
Of promised land, of what I know
Inhaling
Equal parts breathing and dying, finally
Slipping
Submissively, willfully inspired
Sinking
Into a deep sea-blanket, seeing blind
Finding
Breadth below the waves, an old space
Holding
More than was scripted, surviving bold
Feeling
So much more than the safe surface sold
Me
-a.r.
Nightshade
•June 26, 2016 • Leave a CommentSunlight lowers her lashes through blush-seizing leaves
A shadowy acid square drips on the breeze
Wood ants smash bumper-cars into my knees
And dark ivy drags heavy eve-earth towards me
While mad-drunken night birds swill dying of day
And salt sobbing tissues trip-tumble away
A cracked crayon waxes of last winter’s grey…
Noctwind siphon my soul, spill me into Your waves
-a.r.
Artwork: Changing Winds by Kelly Vivanco
Outside Chance
•June 5, 2016 • 4 CommentsTonight
I find myself choosing
Between a tough fight
And a soft relinquishing
I have no fear of sweat and blood
Especially my own
I have blinked away the salt and sting before
I have tasted that sanguine tincture on my tongue
Just as I have gritted and grinned
Guffawed even at the shattering
Of my own sanity
While I shook it off
And got to the business
Of setting it back into place
With a quick jerk, and a wince
Harder still is this, stepping back
And letting his fist fly just beyond me
Leaving only that slight breeze
Which carries with it a faint scent of sweat
And deflated fury
Directing my swollen gaze downward
I let myself listen, for an instant
To shocked silence
A moment of pure possibility
While we wait
To see what move I choose next
Tonight I find myself
-a.r.
Photograph: Boxing-2, by Kalel Koven
A repost for a legend. RIP Muhammad Ali, “People look for miracles. People look for surprises of all kinds. Yet the greatest wonder, the greatest miracle, the greatest surprise, is to be found in one’s heart.” — my favorite quote from The Greatest.
While I Work
•June 2, 2016 • 2 CommentsHope
she travels
on the breeze
hisses promise
in my ear
steals and mingles
with my breath
briefly dries
my tears and sweat
makes me want
her lies to last
as she brushes
past
-a.r.
The Girl at the Gate, by Sir George Clausen
Landscape
•May 17, 2016 • Leave a CommentThe chill
of decapitated grass
Like lettuce halved
and weeping
Chlorophyll clipped
and bleeding
Each single blade
blending
Scents of defense
and healing
Yards of forced
hydrocarbons
Oxygen intoxicants
These fields
for such dreaming
With the air
of green screaming
-a.r.
sometimesihatemycat 