nearly an aerie

I was weak as all get out, not beat down by life
but ripe and palatable
like a peach
perfect to pick.

I say he swooped in, he says I plucked him up
clutched him hard
hot in my talons
and held on.

We shrug-What's the worth in being right,
when we still
grasping and clinging
oh so tight?

when I thought I lost my soul, but geography brought home

The cold, mid-April snow winds sounded a deafening death knell,
as my Hoosier love screeched and hissed, deflating basketball
and corroded and molded, as untended cornfields like to do
but I parry the assault with ardor for the sun at high decibel.
Florida, stay true, for I am coming for you!

Buried in Boonville

From the distance I hear,
"She was her only daughter."
it's my husband, but the words hang
humid in cemetery air
I respond, speaking in tongues,
primal snake screams
tangled, incoherent, alone-
the only child, daughter,
of a single mother, I cannot explain.

I am a sticky, extension of my mother,
a growing appendage,
whipping independence-naïve ignorance
my base attached firmly by nerves,
soaked in her sweat,
reeking of her fears,
tasting her thoughts,
pumping her blood
I'm the tremoring tail severed,
flopping illusion of life,
from a lizard long gone-
A cubic hole, my mother fits in ground.

Not an orphan, not a child,
it's not that my mother died,
beyond grief, I am not whole.
Returning  home, I want to call her
only to think of the time difference before
that looming truth, she's dead.
It snows the next week,
I worry she is cold and alone too,
but know that my voice is still with her
under the white blanket,
slinking in the dirt with the worms.

today I thought

today I thought of you because today
on the radio, the garbled chatter noise, news
reported a man climbed the highest peak in Wales
wearing just his superman underwear.
his hubris, like yours, climaxed to hyperthermia
and it will remain frozen in mastodon time.

today I thought of you so I wrapped up tighter
in my denial blanket: new job, new car, new house,
new cat, new husband, new life, new day
only thing not new is that quilt I stole from your parents
and I thought of what you thought, but realized
nothing's changed: you're probably just thinking of you.

i long to long no longer

Sequestered to the silent fringes,
i'm just a lowly and earthen worm
thirsting to wriggle into the depths
of the dark musty soil of your soul.

Wasted my time fingering tall grass fields
wishing posey petal friendly faces lifted up
or the misty, foggy dew bounty hovering cool
across your solitude and webbed mind.

Exiled past the thin wire fence edges
i'm just a looming caw of raven, sharp
beady-eye watching the lacey filigree branches
layered and stretching your forest chest.

To dream i am welcomed into your heart,
its tiny mossy cottage, moist and lush
i 'd termite burrow into the wooden planks
and, finally, i might find a peaceful home.

pious devotion

Kismet smile tickle
the small of my back
then the arch of my feet,
fingers dance down my spine
cracking to soft squeals
delightful, little ants squirm
Cratos strength underneath
I feel porcelain, dainty, fragile
yet ferocious as a lion tamer.

patriotic

Lovely is wanting to pull
each golden, sunny hair
sprouting from your arm,
devine amber waves of grain.
They say, to not focus on details
you'll miss the forest for the trees.
But I'm scared, I'll miss the man
for the grizzly beast instead.