Antithesis

The red bricks here
warm my hands and heart
even when the wind
burns them with its ice.

Whisper

Ashes.

Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.

Remember
that you are but dust

Dirt and pain and sorrow and toil and tears
and life.

and to dust
you shall return.

~~~

(we sing this song at our red brick church, and i like it. the lines alternate with the leader and the people; for the last line, everyone joins together, their voices twisting and rising in humble offering up, up, up towards the sky and to God. those notes, they arpeggiate to create a chord. 1-b3-5-1. do, me, sol, do.
that do at the top? i like it.)

Glory to God, glory to God, glory in the highest.
Glory to God, glory to God, glory in the highest.
To God be the glory forever.
To God be the glory forever.
Allelujah, amen; allelujah, amen; allelujah, amen; allelujah, amen.

Sisyphus

So this brave new world
we call our own?
I don't think
I like it
much.


I like
to imagine
lines that curve.
This rigid rationality
leaves me to wander alone.

Dissipation

Whispering.
Spirits sing,
ghosts soar.
I hear your voice
and it sends shivers
down my spine
and tickles
the corners of my heart.

I want to feel
the warmth of your breath
on my cold, cold cheek.
Lashes brush
and eyelids close.

I wish you would look back
as you walk away.
but I blink
and you are gone
so quickly
that I would never have known
you even existed.

Strike

I hurt my finger
so you caught it up
in your hand
as you commiserated
and something inside of me
flickered
when you touched my hand.

Yawn

I
am
so tired
right
now.

Confrontation

Fears
Worries
so often ungrounded
but sometimes, not.

I wonder
if tomorrow will be like that
if my fears have roots
that are growing into the soil now
and tomorrow, I'll go to yank them out
but I'll pull and pull
but it won't matter
because they
won't
move.

and they'll grab down
and pull and hold
harder and deeper and stronger
than ever before

then I'll step back
defeated
and facing reality
and the weeds will look at me
as they feel their roots
groping in sheer lust,
in some deep, dark place,
and they will throw back
their scrawny little heads
and necks
and laugh.

Propositions

Oh
Thirsty, thirsty, so thirsty
Parched

"Here. Have some milk."

You pour water
and try to satisfy
and Oh, I want it to,
but I stretch
and groan
and break
without really holding
much water at all.
I am a vessel
too weak to carry
even this little bit
of water you pour
and unless you can find
someone to strengthen my leather,
make it pliable and relaxed
and attentive and free,
and patch my holes and tears
that let water out in tiny trickles,
I cannot hold any of this
so it means naught to provide.

Come What May

So I guess
we don't just have
to learn how to love
but we also have
to learn to be loved.
Being loved,
accepting love,
holding love:
evidently it's kind of hard
and evidently you have to learn how.
That's kind of a comfort,
you know?

View

You try to run, nowhere to hide;
You want to crumple up and close that door.

I wish it was possible
to crumble like that,
y'know?
close the door
and then the next time
I open it to go outside,
none of this will be there
It'll disappear
like little cat-feet fogginess
that you didn't realize
had come earlier
by the time
you wake up in the morning.
and then everything
would be okay.

Secret

You know what? I have a secret.
So I'm going to whisper now.
(Shhh!)

I think it would be fun
to make up a bunch of words
with which to write a poem
like Jabberwocky
except not
because that one's taken.

And I'd write my poem
and everyone would say
"That
is Arielle's.
and she made it up
and it is amazing."

Twas brillig
and the slithy toves.
It's just fun to say.

Shhh! Don't tell.
Well
just not yet.

Ascot

Lace
Black lace
over white silk
Cascades
Falls

down.

Play

Swirling colors
like fixtures with glass gobos
shining onto some stage
illuminating the actors,
revealing their presence.

Passionate pleas
entangled in dark crevices
reaching for a spot of sky
and singing to the moon above.

Reach out your hand
and let me hold you.