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[4/1/2022]

Fingers dancing,
Fumbling,
Tripping through half-forgotten music.
Treble prancing,
Bass tumbling
In song recalled without a lyric.
—
This sound revisits me
From hours of childhood melody,
Touch of black and ivory.
Sister sets old talent free.


The Changeling & I
while reading Catherynne Valente's The Boy Who Lost Fairyland
[4/2/2022]

What is it like, dear boy
To have a heart so big it keeps on beating
No matter how often it is caged
In words like “no” and “not Normal”?
What is it like, dear troll,
To be full of the treasures you’re eating,
See yourself on a picture-book page,
Hold worlds inside your memory tunnel?
I was small once, too.
I looked into the blue and thought
Of conquering kings and feathered horses,
And hopes which could not be bought.
But little one, I hid
And tried to do as I was bid,
Never shouted for stars in their courses
Unlike you.

Getaway
[4/3/2022]

May I just have a place to be?
I am soft and aching.
I would like to dream of doors
To wonder and soul-safety,
Fur and full-throated forest
Or high bright rainbow-flying things.
I’d even take a polished wooden room,
A worn couch and a bowl of Skittles,
Alphabet magnets and narrow book-cases,
Although I know that’s well past.
But all I have is a nest,
A narrow space for me
Between the cat litter and the art desk.
I’m no hatchling now,
And there’s no room to spread a wing.
I’m no cub, and cannot see the moon to howl.
I haven’t even a ticket or a pomegranate seed.

Waking (haiku)
[4/5/2022]

Shadows wander by
In worlds of light and dreaming
Winter turns to Spring


Ode for a Poet
[4/5/2022]

I want to know what you know,
And to know it as clearly.
I want to laugh into the sea reflected in your eyes.
Walk fearlessly between the birds’ surprised wings,
Know what it is the sunshine sings through rain,
And be certain, I am not alone in pain.
Even the stones speak to you of wonder.
I quietly blunder in a muffled world
When everything, everything, everything
Should be calling me to join the dance.
I have lost my rhythm, even while
I watch your heart unfurled.

Cocoon
[4/8/2022]

So. I guess I am hiding today.
My feelings are running away with me.
I would just like some time to be,
But I find that I can’t stay.


Bookbag Magic
[4/8/2022]

Nineteen discrete doors to possibility.
Is it any wonder this bag is so heavy?
It can hold riddles, wonders, a sunflower time-machine,
Shapeshifters and nightmares and attempts to fathom the divine.
Recent voices wander past
With sages who’ve been proven to last.
Some doors are worn and quite well-known
And some are green and newly grown
From some patch of magic forest.
I wait in the hall and rest
And nerve myself for another adventure
Past all watchful eyes and censure.

Kintsugi Friend
[4/9/2022]

Some broken things are caulked with gold
And some find only void.
What will I be?
I have given up pretending I am not among the broken.
I hope only not to break again
Before the healing can begin.
I hope my hopes are more than just a token.
What do you see?
Were you the one some fateful hand deployed
To bind these wounds, or did I make too bold?

Support Systems
[4/9/2022]

What would it take to break a Matilda,
Make a Matilda step on a crack,
Break her mother’s back?
How long can a child live
On books and dreams alone?
If there’s no Miss Honey to give
You hope, no way to make the world atone?

I haven't read Matilda, but I like this.

I like "what the sunshine sings through the rain". I need to work on my own lyrical language a bit for my prose. I love charming turns of words like "clouds in my coffee" even if it is from a rather strange song. Light Between Worlds enchanted me with this, and rereading Savvy with my son turned up some fun metaphors with a flavor so different yet perfect for the mid-American tall take the author's telling.

Also like the book bag Magic one.Your internal rhymes are interesting too.

I don't feel that I completely understand GetAway but I like the last line muchly.

Changeling is cool too though I have no context. You're doing great Lily.

Thanks so much for all the comments on the poetry so far, Kristi! ^_^

Safety
[4/14/2022]

What is safety, anyway?
Can I hold it in a treasure box,
Or give it away?
I want to hunt it out,
Fashion its facets,
Wrap it in gold paper.
I want to give it to you to savor
Beyond the language of regrets.
Less hopeful whispers, more a joyful shout.
Is there a price high enough to pay?
What is safety, anyway?


New Friend
[4/14/2022]

I didn’t know you from Eve,
But suddenly you’re warm and real and here,
Kind eyes listening to me.
You too have been through breaking pressure,
Sought to find your gold.
Can we draw up a treasure map together?
Or if not, I just welcome a hand to hold.

Holy Week
[4/15/2022]

It does not feel like Holy Week today.
I do not see the death of God at noon,
Nor hear the Tenebrae and know blood’s boon.
Two thousand years are just so far away.
It seems less like the cross, and more like Silent Saturday.


Dr. Hero
[4/16/2022]

Was it worth it, healer,
To break so many?
Did you consider any
Other choice?
Propaganda wheeler, dealer,
You lie with such a gentle voice.
As a student of the mind,
What did you find?
Did you blinker off your eyes
Just so you’d avoid surprises?


Discovery
[4/16/2022]

Hope, and hope again
I hear through my echo,
Echoing backwards into me.
Our fingers touch, and spark,
As we speak and ponder
What it could mean to be free.
What if all the world were hollow?
What if we broke down into the core?
What if we found there a flower blooming,
Luminous-bright on the inner world’s floor.


Warning (haiku)
[4/16/2022]

Do not dare crush me,
Or I will come back poison
Fragrant in your hand.