Your Hands

Frame my face,
Remembering every line and curve;
Smooth the hair out of my eyes,
So you can see through me.

Run down the small of my back,
Making me arch with lust;
Cup my breasts so gently,
Sending tremors down my spine.

Lock with mine,
Drawing me against your body;
Powerfully thrust into me,
Melting the surrounding world.

Trace my heart,
Claiming it as your prize.

My Anger

Seeps through the pores
Of my skin,
And enters my mind
Like an explosion.

Polluting the very air
That I breathe,
It seethes.

It can tear you down
With just a glare,
And rip your heart
Into a pair.

Poisoning all the words
That I say,
Yet it stays.

For him

I hear about you every day
How graciously you labor for Him
It leaves me without words to say
And fills my thoughts with fancy whim

For, sometimes I wish to reach you
If only to grasp your hand
To transfer my emotions through
To make you understand

That even though we’ve never met
Nor ever shared a single word
Your face I just cannot forget
And I know this sounds absurd

But when I close my eyes at night
It is only you I see
With your arms held outright
Waiting to accept me

And suddenly I trust you
As if I’ve known you all along
And my heart tells me that
With you is where I belong

I know that’s just a dream
Because you are His chosen son
And I am just mainstream
But I know that you’re the one

Perhaps it is like the time before
When He chose Mary
And once she was reformed
She was who Jesus wanted to marry*

It’s an example of a love so sincere
That it has no spiritual limit
Something to which we could adhere
If only He would permit it

*According to the non-Canonical Gospels.

Humbled

If ever there was a foolish plan
To hang onto a man
It must be conception.
For a lifetime bond unintended
Simply breeds resentment.
And lady, you are no exception.

Creating life is a grand gateau
Which God bestowed
Upon us with the best intentions.
It’s a power not to be trifled with
Survival’s very pith,
Not to be used for you own invention.

Because all those lonely nights
And loud fights, now imminent
Could have been averted.
Instead now you’re stuck
In a loveless rut
And surely lady, you deserve it.

Wind

*Originally published at Vox Poetica.

A warm, subtle wind blew in from the west
Stirring the leaves upon the ground,
Stirring the heart in my breast.

And for a moment I felt again what it meant to be alive
My veins were red with pumping blood,
My very soul, revived.

But just as soon as the wind came, it again fled
And left me feeling empty inside,
Left me feeling dead.

Unglued

I thought of you today
And was surprised by the rush of pain
That swam into my heart
And split it in twain.

How is that
Just a simple thought of you
Can take years of piecing together
And make them all come unglued?

Johnny Cash

His words penetrate my skin
And a smile plays across my lips,
His guitar fingers my heart strings,
His rhythm sways my hips.

I close my eyes and see his,
Staring deep down into my own.
There is a certain darkness there,
It makes me feel at home.

He reaches out and touches me,
A gentle brush across my cheek,
He presses his lips to my ear,
And starts to speak.

“The taste of love is sweet,
When hearts like ours meet.
I fell for you like a child,
Oh, but the fire went wild.”

I lift my chin and arch my back,
Letting the enchantment fill me.
It rushes through my veins,
And I submit to him willingly.

“I fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down,
And the flames went higher.”

The spell takes hold of my heart,
A hostage for a captor,
He will never let it go,
Not in this life, nor after.

I will always love being his,
Even when he deserts me.
I will wait for him again and again,
No matter how much it hurts me.

“And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire,
The ring of fire.”

Down

Take my hand and draw me down,
Past the city
And past the town

Escape with me into the clear,
Hold me close
Hold me, dear

Knead your body against mine,
Our lips marry
Our limbs entwine

Open the petals one by one,
Reveal it the world
Reveal it to the sun

Oh, I beg you please draw down,
Drink just a sip
Or drink til you drown

Enter the pistil ever so cavalier,
Show you mean it
Show you’re sincere

Build up strength the further you go,
Faster and faster
Then slow, slow

Until my nectar spills from the crown,
And I ask again
Please, oh please, draw me down

Hell

There is a restlessness only I know,
It settles so deep inside me,
I can feel it in my bones.

It’s a restlessness that burrows into my brain,
Scattering any of the thoughts,
In which I wish to rein.

How long it will last only God can tell,
But I hope it will end soon,
For surely I’m in hell.

A Little Poetry

People always ask me
Why I write little poems.
The answer is simple really,
The longer the poem,
The smaller the meaning.

Sunflower

Your face is like an army
Made up of a thousand men
All standing at attention
And saluting the godly sun
Some of those men
Will yellow with fear
And will only be useful
As figureheads
While the others will mature
Into great heroes
And spread far and wide
Sprouting in continents around the world
Central America
South America
Europe
Where they will take root
And spread their innovation
In the fields of
Agriculture
Medicine
Energy
They will become silent and humble
Rulers of the world

Did You Never Know

Did you never know I loved you,
Even through my earnest words and acts?
Did you never know I loved you,
Despite my difficult past?

Just because I didn’t flaunt it,
Didn’t make it any less true,
Did you really need an audience to know,
That I loved you?

Firefly

Wanting what you can’t have is like
Saying you cannot feel joy without pain
Or know life without death
Because once you have something
So powerful
Grasped in your palm like a summertime firefly
You know you don’t want to ever let it go
But you do
So it isn’t crushed and suffocated in your hands
And it can safely reclaim its place in the world
Where it belongs
And you will miss it
When it’s gone and the season changes
And when you think back
About that beautiful, amazing light
Shining up into your eyes
A miracle only Gods could make
Suddenly you will feel
Sick with desire to capture it again
And you will try
But that firefly won’t be the same as the first
It won’t be perfect like the one you had
It will leave you disappointed and wanting
For the original firefly that is nowhere to be found
And that is how I feel about you, my darling

Ring

The bitter cold nips my face
But it's nothing I can't take,
Snow fell the night before,
Blanketing the bank and lake.

This is where I sit
And fill my head with such thoughts,
That are as stilling as the frozen water
And as chilling as the winter’s frost.

It was here just last summer
Where I found you on bended knee,
With a face full of hope, when you asked,
“Will you marry me?”

Not a second after I accepted
Than you were called away,
First by Jessica, then by Lindsay
But I waited for you anyway.

I waited until September
When the weather began to cool,
I waited until All Hollow’s Eve
When the streets filled with goblins and ghouls.

Then came Thanksgiving
When all of my family asked after you,
And now soon it will be Christmas,
Whatever will I do?

I will not throw myself into the freezing lake,
For I could never do such a thing,
But I simply have no problem,
Throwing in your ring.

Alone

I miss
You cobalt eyes
And all they said to me
With just one glance

I miss
Your mischievous smile
And the way it made the butterflies
In my stomach dance

I miss
Your strong hands
And the way they always surprised me
With a gentle touch

I miss
Your soft lips
Whispering the words
That made me fall in love

I miss
Your reckless abandon
That taught me
How to be free

I miss
Your unquestioning devotion
That always
Protected me

I miss
Your candidness
And how you always
Came through

But most of all
I miss
The days when
You missed me too

High School Folly

Do I miss your steely eyes---
Your lips pulled tight in refusal,
So that mine could not touch them unless
I acted like the person you dreamed me to be?

I did.

But I don’t anymore.

I don’t miss your insistence
Upon being the wittiest and the most artistic;
Which only made you inane and dull at best,
Even in the shallowest of circles.

I don’t miss burning to please you
With a useless repertoire of bad music
By criers against big business
Marketing a brand name attitude straight to you,
Making you yell anti-establishment in the middle of the mall,
Where you bought your new shoes.

Most of all,
I don’t miss the deceitful way in which you fooled me
Into believing that I was a bad person;
When all the while you looked down your nose
At our relationship like it was a satire,
And so carried out another one,
A more serious one,
Simultaneously.
Then lambasting me for breaking your heart
When I decided to do the same to you,
Leaving me angry and guilty,
For all these years since.

Sleep

Once, I prayed for Sleep to love me,
To stroke my hair and covet me.
Now, he never leaves my side,
No matter where I run or hide,
He finds me out and punishes me accordingly.

Court, February ------

I sit still in the packed courtroom as a tall, noble looking man approaches the judge.
I assume he must be a lawyer in such a suit, with such a dignity.
His mocha skin stands apart from the rest of us, pale with winter's frost.
The judge looks him over slowly and then spells his name aloud,
" B H A G W A N T"
Bhagwant Patel.
He nods solemnly as the judge begins to weave his tale for all of us to hear.
"On the night of February ----- you came into confrontation with a state trooper, correct?
You were stopped for a traffic violation, illegal lane change, correct?
At that time the office smelled alcohol on your breath, correct?
And, you admitted to consuming several alcoholic beverages before driving your vehicle, correct?
You also refused a breathalizer, correct?
You are pleading guilty to the charges of driving under the influence of alcohol,
And by doing so, give up your right to a trial, correct?
Then, as an official of this court, I hereby sentence you to
12 hours of community service, $500 in fines, and 7 months suspension of driving priveleges.
You are dismissed."
Bhagwant Patel drags himself out of the courtroom,
His eyes stone cold sober.
I gulp,
And hope that my name is not called next.

Cardinal

A red cardinal perches on the evergreen in my backyard,
His arrowheard sharp and alert, pointing northward,
His glassy black eyes are set in still contemplation.
Or, is his whole hollow body set in still andumbration?

What are the plans that have him wrapped in such thought?
Or are they fantasies, whichever, for both will get him caught
Insides the small, round oculus of binoculars from afar,
Stared into by an admirer like an astronomer and a star.

But it will only be for an instant before the cardinal is off in flight,
Heading towards an unseen destination into the winter night.

Langston Hughes

Riff on, my brother!
Make that sweet jazz breathe life,
Rip into my soul
With that serrated knife.

Cut me open, brother!
Filet my white skin raw
And make me feel guilty
For existing at all.

You say you and your mama had hard times
Well, I have too.
America ain't colorblind like you.

Now, don't get me wrong,
I won't pretend I've had it worse,
But I know what it feels like
To wish for your own hearse.

So, play on, my brother!
Let me hear those sweet tunes!
And, I'll sway with you
Under the drunken moon.

We'll swap sob stories
Of dirty New York
And corrupt New Jersey.
We'll become kindred souls,
Searching for love in a hurry.

We'll share a quick kiss,
Fusing your rhythm and my rhymes,
That will help us escape the crime
Of loving and hating both white and black.
So, jazz on my brother,
And never let me go back!