Across the Lines

Across the lines

blended and blurred,

I believe in rules

but not always rulers…

Regret

I had a regret,

but it has past

a tiny moment

that did not last.

 

The questions of “what of”s?

and “how”s and why?

the memories come knocking

waiting for reply…

 

But must I answer?

Account for decisions gone?

Why do I still remember

these moments from

 

The times I could have,

and the times I did,

the hours I may have,

the power I had.

 

To strongly avoid

experiences, by contemplation…

why do I still mourn

what I missed in sensation?

Bittersweet

Like a crisp apple life is so bittersweet.

I sink my teeth in deeper

and the sticky sap runs down my cheek

mixing with tears from laughter

and salty drops from hurt;

the good, the bad and the ugly,

the polite, the beautiful, the curt;

all replying to the flavor of my every bite

my prayer is that I’d savor

each taste of season throughout my life.

Patience

It tries to slow the heartbeat down

to a gentle drumming sound

to rock us peacefully to bed.

 

It tries to calm our head

to release words unsaid

in the timing of serenity.

 

What feels like an eternity

it places within our proximity

if only we’d learn to wait.

 

Life feels like it hesitates,

keeps us chained by open gates,

but truly, sets a better pace.  

The Shallows

She tipped toed into the icy water, and shivered as the liquid surrounded her skin. The rocky sand beneath her slid lightly forward and back with the rocking of the current. Peering, she looked for lovely stones and pebbles to add to her collection. A blue gray one here, a smooth red one there, and as she went to lift them up she discovered that they were exceedingly heavy. Looking at a smaller rough one she dipped her hand into the shallow water to lift to her basket, but again found that it was unmovable. Though it swayed lightly with its surroundings she was unable to carry it from the river to her container. She then set her basket down and with both hands strained to carry on with a different rock, but it refused to leave the shallows. Getting down on her hands and knees she pulled and tugged, frustrated at the lack of life around her, and at the beauty the river would not share.

Slowly, determined and hopeful, she laid out, bracing her feet on the shore, and digging her hands into the shoal she clawed at the stones.

This is a tragedy, so I hope you did not hope too much with her, because there she died; Drowned in determination, suffocated- not by the depth, nor the current, but in the safe place of the bay. Her last breath a mere bubble among the rocks.

And there her body remains, too exhausted to gasp for a breath, too cold to move out of the water. Feet still grounded to the shore, yet unable to leave the shallows.

More

You know that moment?

That one when you realize there’s more hurt than you can conquer?

That one in which you become traumatically aware-

 

there are more hands than you can hold,

there are more heads than you can kiss,

there are more people than your soul will ever know,

there are more bodies than beds,

 

there remains more lonely than you can comfort,

there remains more criminals than will make it to court,

there remains more lies than truths that score,

there remains less health than sores,

 

there’s still more orphans than you can adopt,

there’s still more gangs than you can stop,

there’s still more words after you speak up…
Yet there’s still more God- He is never used up.

Outside

Why does the Weeping Willow weep-

its mournful branches the air to sweep?

Why couldn’t it perhaps more be

Like the Magnolia pressing at the sky’s seams

with optimistic buds in magenta unfolding?

Lizzi

It had been,

what had felt,

like ages spent,

since I had knelt

before your gaze-

Though my soul had spent

thoughts of your ways,

prayers for your intent,

the habits of your days;

I was consumed till when,

in glorious healing,

my day began,

in a mixture of feeling,

holding your hand;

every marring

hopeful then

in God’s deep, caring

spiritual medicine

mended the memories,

repaired anxieties,

fused pure longings

into what they should have been

between our goodbye,

the separation,

and now- our

Hello, again.