I rise each morning
Stretch and mumble, stumble out
Today’s a new day
Yesterday I wept
Today I sing a new song
Yet both sound the same
The tears keep falling
I’d have stopped them if I could
In another life
Another Life
Tag: poetry
Scars
We hold some scars sacred
The slashes in our hearts
The cuts that never heal
Mostly, those unseen,
Those so deep that no one even knows they exist
Inside the heart
On the surface of the soul
We can’t let them go
While savoring the burn
Mars
I hear Mars is beautiful tonight in some parts of the world
The trees here where I live obstruct my view of the late summer sky, so I can only imagine.
It’s the only thing I miss from our days living on the plains, where I could look up and say,
“See, there’s Venus or Mars or Jupiter.” Once for a week the three lined up and I
Sat outside with the smell from a neighbor’s wood-burning fireplace my best companion,
That and the off again, on again lightning bugs, playing peekaboo in the bushes.
The webbed lawn chair’s plastic, scratchy against my pajama-clad legs,
A glass of Merlot, sipped slowly, once empty, the sign I should give up the watch
Leaving the celestial trio to their own devices for another night.
Points of View
He thought her lovely
Yet too stubborn to be tamed
His heart seemed shuttered
She feared he’d control
But desired him at all costs
Her heart was open
One passionate night
Lovers standing on the brink
Which way would they fall?
Okay, I started to look for photos of human couples to accompany this honestly awful bit of poetry, but adding the cats seemed to make it all better.
Meow, people!
A Journey
In the first sentence our boat leaves the dock, into an ocean of words.
As captain and navigator I decide: East or west? North or south?
Who will dine with me at the captain’s table this night? Who will tumble over the rail?
Will there be secrets and intrigue, murder and mayhem? Or an affair to remember?
How turbulent will the seas grow? How contrary the winds?
I’ll brook no mutiny; my crew fears, no, respects me even as they mutter behind my back:
She has no idea how to bring this boat into port. We’re doomed to wander through eternity.
I fear they’re right, but still I hold the course and dance when the band starts to play.
Today Songs
Sit in the right here
A place that’s never been and
Will never again
Long for tomorrow
Recall fondly yesterday
Be still for today
The world unfolds yet
Time constraints define these lives
These beautiful lives
Summer Evening on the Back Porch
Chris Stapleton on the radio, singing about Tennessee whisky
While I’m drinking Merlot and dancing with the cat
She’s not much of a two-stepper, but she sure likes to waltz
Although, waltzes make me cry now—the boy who taught me one, two, three, one, two, three
Spinning me around the dance floor is gone, too soon, we were not worthy of his grace.
Do you think Roy waltzes in heaven? Twirling angels ‘til they’re giggling and giddy?
If heaven has a dance floor, he’s made it his own. Pop a top and watch him go.
The Pepper Song
Yesterday I wrote about going to the store when the only thing I needed to buy was pepper. I could’ve put off the visit to the store until I needed more than pepper, but I wanted the human interaction. That’s warped, I know.
Wanna know what’s even more warped? Instead of going to a supermarket or a Dollar Store, I went into Walmart. For one item. What kind of idiot goes to Walmart for one item? Of course, I ended up buying cat food and bananas and deodorant and something else I can’t recall.
But I digress. The important thing is that as I was walking from my car into the store I made up a pepper song. It’s probably the best song I’ve ever heard, and it goes like this:
“The Pepper Song”
I’m just here for the pepper
My favorite spice
I eat it on everything
‘Cause it makes everything nice.
Don’t be hating my pepper
Or warning me off
It makes me sneeze sometimes
But never makes me cough
Brilliant, right?
Peace, people!
Dancing Alone
Always the tallest
Last one picked as a partner
A true wallflower
No one was unkind
The sad faces, exhaled sighs
Though, told the story
I so loved to dance
Had rhythm enough to spare
Oh, to be chosen
Drinking and Dancing
A day, one minute
They’re both the same without you
Time shuffles along
One beer becomes three
Each sip brings a memory
Sure wish you were here
I dance alone some
Waltzing around the kitchen
Clutching a shadow
Praying for Eyebrowz 