The Brick Wall

Today I see a brick wall Magnificent and cherry-red laid in layers of parallel cement lines It rises on all sides Cold and hard Towering and deep It is a house from the 1960’s with a wide porch and stately columns of white But it is not my house though I am bound  to it

Even When

#VSS365, Prompt: Even Even whendarkness shroudsall that I hope for,the warmth of your feetbeneath the sheetsslide to find mineat some ungodly hourand I’m reminded in the worst of timeswe still have each other

Grow

#VSS365, Prompt: shatter Growing up is tedious—A vine smothered beneatha paved pathwayTrampledWe persistReaching through the cracks to besun-kissedand seenJust as we peekan ocean of feetStampedeand we stretch tall and surviveor shatter beneath it all

Misheard

#VSS365, Prompt: Translational From the beginning,we had a translationaldilemmaYou said you loved me,I heard you’re leavingYou said trust,I heard lieYou begged me to stayso I grew wings to flyForever—you saidYou couldn’t have knownas soon as you wanted meIwasalreadygone

Impossibility

#VSS365, Prompt: Ledge My knees dragas I crawl to the ledgePeer over into all possibilityGrab my rope, tightenmy laces but stay It’s the sameevery dayI know what I could bebut I’m too afraid of heights

Forgotten

VSS #365 Prompt: Change I once flew away—migratingnorth to southat the slightest hint of changeMy wingsgave me freedom,until I exchanged itto eat from the palm of your hand,perched in the beauty of your shadeMaybe I’ve forgotten how to be a birdbut I’ve learned to be love

Running in Circles

Tonight I am tired in my bones Deep-soul tired and When I close my eyes I can hear my feet pounding the earth in a heartbeat cadence The cool of the evening swallowing me as if I’m in another place and time — And, isn’t that the point? Some of us run for accolades Trophies

No Place Like Home

Pounding like a pushed too-far heartbeat Each careful syllable of the word California paused like slow-motion in my mind Because I was a small town girl with no knowledge of highways that stretch across the length of a state And I didn’t understand that a backyard of  chard grass could drink of a brief  season

Bubblegum Pink

Bubblegum pink is all I see — like a movie before me — But flat and unmoving Except if I stare  then little particles dance  in my field of vision  and keep me company I’m never alone But sometimes I’m safe and sometimes I’m not and always there is nothing I can do but think

California

Once a stranger, now you occupy so much of my heart with wonder. The roar of your great ocean beneath jutted, jagged cliffs stole my breath – With fear, with amazement, with the quiet thought that my life would never be the same. I’ve climbed mountains, hiked miles through woven trails that thousands carved out