U missed it

There was a word for what we were
But you missed it
A song, caught fermented, poured but spilled
A table set for a guest who never arrived
A band too big for their own britches
Lost in acres of stolen sounds that were given
But never returned to their listeners

Somehow being you always meant
That the meaning of me, on the tip of the tongue
Must’ve slipped my mind


There was a beauty in who I was
But you missed it
Too busy looking at the motivations of
All those other people who wondered
What it was, and who I was
That you could no longer see
Me


There was a sweetness for what we had
But you missed it
The honey mouthed
tingling fizzy pink lemonade kiss of naked
Naturalness
The decadent deliciousness of our richness that
Somehow had become bitter rote
When my footsteps fell in perfect alignment with yours
As we walked silently across the parking lot
You got in your car, and left
With a sour look
Mad ‘cause you weren’t the cook


Yesterday at
sunrise over the Mojave of the mind
As I sipped on mojito muse
And wrote a poem

I am sure you would have loved
Had you learned
What you were missing

Beautiful Bones

You may have broken my heart
But like a mended bone
It has grown
One side latched to the next
the wound, the crack, the flesh
has closed
memory is made in place of fracture
like a woman awakened from a deep sleep
I am
Strong and strident
Singing with a renewed pulse

Ready to run again

The Last Reminder (In memory of Jeannie Guzman)

Use me
Use me until I am all used
Until there is nothing left to squeeze
To empty
To hold
Use my laughter to water your garden
In the winter
And my tears to wet
The curved faces and arms of a churlish summer
Lace every memory of me you ever found
Until it gleams like hope
And wear it on dates
Until one day white and wedded with hope
You walk
Use me
Until my sweat becomes
The levy that leaves
The dry land dancing
With wet
Use me
Until my name no longer
Sounds like me
It sounds like thee
Until my love no longer
Lingers
But lays down
Before you
Lighting a pathway to
Peace
If you really love me, remember me
And use me
until another uses you
until the rhythmic interlock
of time and space
becomes as it always should have been
full of music lessons

Yes, use me
My love
Until I am all gone
Then I will
never really
be far away

Electricity (you)

Lead me into the valley
That has no secrets
Bewitch me with your brilliance
Whisper words of loud love
Provoking the eardrum of time
To explode with fuchsia rays
conducted on a sovereign stream
of bright blended hope
Run your words into and through
stiff fields of fire
brazenly with unassuming gall
Travel ten thousand roads less traveled
Until your compass returns you here
Give in to me
And I will yield to you
Until there is nothing left