"Those were hard things for me to come by, and I offer them to you for what they may be worth." - Toby Wolff



Monday, January 27, 2025

Truth - always




Don't hide anything from me,
least of all your failings.
For I have whipped recital wings
against my own practiced body...
You have no idea.

You should know that
it's your failings that make you
oh.so.beautifully relatable.
"Perfect" people are just
the bottom step of a spiral ladder,
with lives that just keep swirling
above reality.

There is no profit in the untrue.
You think you weren't already worthy
enough in this heart,
propagated by God Himself?

My eyes have clouded
and my memory has dimmed...
but I know you.
I birthed you and grew you
under the roof my parents built above me
which they taught was THE WAY.

We all have history to dismantle
brick by brick
or to climb
step by step.

I tore it down sweetheart.
There was no foundation left,
or so I thought....
as if the physical removal of heart
could also brain matter
remove.

And so I dig.

And so should you.

Friday, February 16, 2024

Pulling Up Roses

It's a wound so old,
covered with years.
You could mow it down
if you were still around,
but there's no closure
with you in the ground.

Where were the stitches
as the blood leached out?
I had to self-infuse
and it isn't about
status quo.
It's just the drug, you know...
keeps you so numb
and somehow alive.

I despise you for your weakness
I despise you for your failure
I hate you most for the reflection
and the way I see me there.

Whatever the conflict...
your daughter carries the anvil
that drops on my neck
and sinks the progress we might have made.
You give her that power
over
me.

Your excuse is fucking ancient.
Haven't you fixed it yet?
But don't point that finger back at me.
My pain is bigger,
don't you get that?
Ha!

Can we ever be to each other
the grace that's so offered
or will we always be the devil
poking fingers into wounds proffered?

We should be the stable,
the picketed sanctuary.
But we're pulling up roses
while the weeks run unchecked
through our unease.


Inhuman

I'm not human
after all you cut from me
the core and emphasis
of what I was made for.
You bent it backwards.
You broke the reed you beat me with.

I'm not whole anymore.
The gaps are wider than the seams.
Nothings comes together
from the pieces
and I can't cover anything.

I'm vanilla fluff to everyone,
most of all myself,
but you see me as power.
Why?
I've never been so anemic
ineffectual
a breath wasted
an inhalation so labored
it can have no reach but life support.

Why this life?
Damn it
show me why?

Saturday, September 30, 2023

When The Glitter Wears Off

I saw a thousand diamonds
rolling across the surface of the deep,
like the shimmer I wore once
when life was simpler
and ignorant ducks all followed in line.

Who knew the smallest breeze
could blow the glitter elsewhere
and I, left rather dull
and naked.

Am I the Emporer?
Where are my clothes?
Had I ever really owned such regalia?
Or was I dull from the start,
wearing you like a charm?

Then I realized how lopsided it all is.
What is a charm without a bracelet
or a bracelet without an arm?
I am the anchor
without which
glitter gathers dust
in a closet of desire. 

It is MY arm
decorated to my pleasure
that meets your pleasure
or it doesn't.
But it's my fucking arm.

I think you understand now,
right?
I choose the charm
and the glitter is the light I shine
on my own skin.

Glass House

What's it going to take?
What pound of flesh?
It's not really what I did...
it's what was done before, that caused the bedrock
of your unforgiveness.

You want me over a barrel
digging out from a deficit
day by day by day,
and you thinking you're faultless.

In the end
you gutted me,
barrel be damned.
I was drawn and quartered
by your need to play God
to make me confess,
to make me pay
for your paranoia.

Your house is glass also.
How will you fare
with all those stones?


The Wind Outside

The waters are agitated,
waves reigning havoc since day break.
They crash against the rocks
the wind bending branches at shoreline.

The cabin is oddly bereft of the storm
although every other instance
wind has howled through like a freight train,
scattering papers
depositing dust.

Why today...
when the storm within me rages
has God blocked the wind?
He's left it for me to see
but protects me from it's consequence.

Even stranger,
I wanted to feel it's fierceness
to know it's power
the strength of my foe.

God whispers
"It's not your foe.
It's not your storm."

Shit Show

Things have gone to shit
as they often do,
and no one is really sure
if we want the show to go on.

The banquet is set
costumes bejeweled
but the magic has left the stage.
The show must not go on
for the damage...
the damage done.

Will it break us?
Will it build us?
May we be renewed?
Or was it a poorly written play,
a show for love
not of love,
a need for applause
not worthy of such things?

What the hell did you do?
I warned you.
You warned me off.
I complied, and
I failed you.