I plucked the rose from that side-street,
I stripped it down to thorns and leaves.
Formed to a crown, my head received.
I put it on, and began to bleed.
Now it’s safe to witness me.
Keep the barbs where I can see them.
Never mind that river red.
The pain and fear exist together.
Yet still cannot cast me dead.
Emotional skin:
Thin from within.
Every damn feeling
Is massive, intense.
The joy shines bright
My eyes cannot see
Without the protection
Of dark glasses UV.
The anger sinks deep
To the bottom of my sea.
It boils the blood
Of my ancestral streams.
From highest of highs
To the lowest of lows,
Disorder unknown
I will not take home.
Look, I am letting all things fall apart.
The dark smoke clouds have split the veil,
The sky ripped itself from the earth’s decay:
“I won’t allow you to harm me any longer.”
Reclamation protocol initiated.
Your fortified walls dusted with ash now bleed
Roses of crimson fire, the birds once muzzled
Sing again with candid candor, restoring the
Blue-green sphere we’ve demolished to khaki rot.
Let the rain pour from the atmosphere’s pain,
Filling the climate with holy frankincense.
She swallows our found-and-lost empire,
White-washed sepulchers buried in bedrock.
The Mother Queen’s majesty coats my tongue,
Palette fatigued with cleansing bitter wormwood:
An eternal gift from the bizarre new spring of life.
My dust formed body, now stored in kimberlite.
The former passed away.
My hair curls like black roses. In
The heat, I find repose. Suppose,
I might not have known such sorrow
And strife, I could never begin
To live my life. I crossed the valley of death and shame
Where black roses bloom in wild abundance.
I grabbed many off the highway
To remember the pain someday
Of thistles and thorns; much stronger
Than those on a rose colored red.
I had many once. Such grief. I gave
Of them too freely. I played a zero
Sum game. Too much tension in my
Own damn brain. I remember
The days when loving seemed easy.
Wake up in the morning to find
You there sleepy, steal a kiss on your
Forehead, you smiled so sweetly.
I figured it out, I had it unlocked.
A blur of a thought to what came next.
I lost you due to deep-seated frustrations at
Myself and my past which dissolves
Beneath me. Now I’ve got wounds that
Penetrate deeply. To heal now takes forever
And a day, the process of a journey.
Black roses now bloom around my red;
Beauty of strife so mirrored in death,
New life finds itself growing again.
I once compared my face to silk milk,
Gentle and fair, to disguise my sins.
With billowing cascades of lustrous satin
I dressed a beast beautiful to hide in plain sight.
Pushing through smoke of sensual dance,
He’s arrogant, ignorant, attention-seeking.
He drifts in the dark begging for pleasure,
Mastering me, his agent of chaos.
I want to destroy him, evade my consciousness.
I’d send him running East till he finds West.
But the courage dies with every sigh and kiss.
Beauty beast alive in me, subtle, sly, and silent.
He undoes me in one fell swoop, skins emotions raw.
The light of sun says to the moon, “I saw the truth today.”
The light of darkness says that crown can sit on freedom’s head.
Sun sets down smug off the throne to welcome night’s decay.
My mask now gone, the lighted night, the scars
Fly free, establish me, to set the pattern right.
I cannot go back home again, their “light” only offends.
I find it now here in the dark, the truth makes better friends.
No one can be like me
I am me and you are you.
No one can think like me,
Why would I want them to?
Shackle individuality to collectivity
It holds us in tension to one another
Can’t have one without the other
The extremities stretch us far
It takes me being me
And you being you
For us to race forward
And backward
Forward race to us
For you being you
And me being me
Takes it
fly at warp speed -- caution: slow down now
blind your peripherals -- warning: look out now
run on empty fumes -- alert: refuel now
avoid braking -- SOS: please stop… now.
*
fear and escape -- awaken: arise and upend now
mask and survive -- breathe: be raw and alive now
loot and hoard -- inhale: be free with the self now
choke and hold -- exhale: release and let go, now.