My blue candy heart
Shown with the thawing snow, Quick,
Feast before love fades
-a.r.
Photo by me
Candy Heart
•January 29, 2016 • Leave a Comment(W)hole
•January 27, 2016 • Leave a CommentMy body has abandoned me
It left
Nothing but a heavy hole inside
My chest
I lift my fists from pockets deep
To feel
Both sweaty clench and winter chill
Surreal
To let these worlds inside and out
Combine
Almost presents as possible this
Time
-a.r.
Painting by Catherine Maroney, found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/202460460/original-oil-painting-hands-underwater
Namesake
•January 27, 2016 • 4 CommentsWatching my old cat waste away
I want desperately to hate him
While I wipe his piss and shit, again
But today the rage just is not there
I cannot help but ache
About the day I might be in his place
The acrid sting and unplanned mess
Does nothing to lessen
This lesson
If I should make it to his age
Skin, and bones, and howls from pain
My only comfort, food again
Lumps of unkempt, unwashed hair
Foggy eyes that search somewhere
For someone’s hands, that safer space
To hide the world and hide my face
When I am wandering
As he does
Dragging limbs but hanging on
I hope that I will have someone
To wipe, to feed, to comfort me
To offer me sanctuary
To watch me sleep, make sure I breathe
Watching my old cat waste away
I beg belief in karmic way
-a.r.
Painting by Dana Payne Saunders
Willful
•January 23, 2016 • Leave a CommentWillful
Snowflakes shifting
Drifting in reverse
Suddenly forgetting
Their mission to fall
Changing their mind
Desiring a new direction
They decide to catch
The next breeze back
Upward tending
But the Winter Wind
Only plays with them
Swirling their climb
Around his finger, He
Cradles their attempts
Their wishes for ascension
For a moment in his palm
Before blowing them
Back down again
As was always
Intended
-a.r.
Photograph: Snowflakes by candymax found here:
http://abduzeedo.com/snowflakes-photography-inspiration
Monsters
•January 20, 2016 • Leave a CommentI make monsters
out of molehills
while I toss my hair
and try to skip
over and
around them
or I blithely think
to kick them down
but by then
they have already grabbed
my ankles
yanking hard
causing me to sink
and who can skip
or kick
or blithely do anything
while you’re up to your knees
in monster’s muck and lair
not me, apparently
so today
I simply
look down and lock eyes
monster a monster
and wonder if they know
just who
they have in tow
-a.r.
Painting: A Girl and her Demon Pet, by Omar Rayyan
Foggy
•January 18, 2016 • Leave a CommentA fog
Of should-have
And to-do
Rolling in
My body needed
Resting
But beware
Those rocky chores
Along the shore
Kept at bay
But waiting
Still piercing
With late
Morning’s clearing
-a.r.
Jouissance
•January 15, 2016 • 1 CommentI have felt such loss
Of a thing before it left
Excruciating
I am told that this
Is love with its claws dug in
Eviscerating
-a.r.
Photograph: Claws I
by armene on deviantart.com
Little Bird
•January 13, 2016 • 6 CommentsThat morning
The little bird
Flew down our chimney
We stood still
Hushed and waiting
No sound
But the rustling of flustered wings
And my child muffling a scream
No movement
But the swirling of six month old soot
From her feathers like tiny contrails
In the morning light
She landed on the sill of our closed window
And stilled
Like us
Her body wound tight and vibrating
Staccato twitching, watching
Us, the window, us, the window
And then
She began rubbing her tiny feathered skull
With a fluid motion across the thick glass
Back and forth
Back and forth
Back and forth
Accompanied by a soft clicking
Each time she changed direction
Her beak quietly tapping
A Morse Code
An S.O.S to save her soul
And so You did
Slowly You made Your way to her side
She trusted You, she stayed
I swear I saw Your reflection in her ebony eye
You
Gently
Reached
And inched
That
Old
Window
Open
There was a pause, a moment
Of our collective breath being held
She looked around with a tilted head
As if confused by her own stillness
She took it all in
And then she leapt
That morning
Felt like
Magic
-a.r.
This is a repost of a previous poem, and an actual event.
Some days it feels as if that morning is still happening.
Pandora’s Ache
•January 10, 2016 • 5 CommentsThis ache
Here you are again
Nesting nerves under my skin
The obvious and throbbing thumb
The growling ghost inside my gut
The drawer left open yesterday
The toppled pile of disarray
The hungry tug away from tasks
The dream today that just distracts
The chair pulled out and left that way
The knick-knack put back out of place
The water boiling down to bare
The scent of scorching in the air
The fitful feeling left ajar
The cold stuffs spoiling where they are
The dust shadow upon the shelf
The empty pang for something else
You reside inside this space
Here you are again
This ache
-a.r.
Painting: Pandora by John William Waterhouse
Ember
•January 5, 2016 • Leave a CommentI watched that last ember
Ash gasping for life
I mourned as it flashed
Spark to black
Then it surprised me
Clawed quick back to light
I stayed witness
To learn from its fight
-a.r.
Painting: Lady by the Fireplace by Gustav Klimt
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