Sunday, August 31, 2014

the Coming of Winter...

Winter is coming
and you will be quitting me soon...

I know this fact
every moment of every day...

Each day the beast draws closer
with each breath, with each beat
with the fall of each night
the day becomes shorter
the darkness grows and
the silence creeps closer...

It stalks me
watching and waiting for the moment
that moment when you will touch me for the last time...

The cold silence waits for me
it waits until you are gone
it waits for that moment
to wrap its cold, dark silence around me
to hold me untouched, cold and silent
all through the long dark months...

I can feel it closing in on me
and I want to scream...

No you cannot take me!
I am Warm and Alive!
I hold Fire inside me!

But no matter how I rage against it
no matter how hard I beat my fists against the tomb
no matter...

I cannot escape 
the coming of Winter.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Let me...

Let me laugh, let me dream; let me be a child…

Let me grow, let me learn; let me burn like wild…

Let me work, let me play; let me have some fun…

Let me run, let me roam; let me have freedom…

Let me live, let me love; let me do my thing…

Let me dance, let me give; I have a song to sing!

June 1977  my first poem  age 11

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

the price

the price we sold ourselves for
was never the nine pieces of tarnished silver in the kitchen drawer
four knives, two forks and three spoons…

it wasn't the pair of used sneakers two sizes too big for our feet
or two pairs of cast-off jeans
and three worn-out t-shirts that we wore all week
clean or not, ‘cause maybe they didn’t get washed
but they were all we had to wear in January…

or the greasy popcorn we ate for a week
‘cause there was nothing else in the place

it wasn’t the broken bone
that never healed right
‘cause she couldn’t be bothered
to take us back to the doctor…

or the looks from our teachers and our classmates
that said they could see our darkness
and it made them nervous …

it wasn’t the hand that never touched our hair
or the eyes that looked right through us
like we were never even there
or the words of pride that our ears never heard...

or the touch we craved like addicts

it wasn’t the anger that filled our bellies
or the guilt we felt for always wanting more...

or all the things we did
to buy oblivion instead…

it wasn’t the time we spent on our knees begging
or the years spent quiet, timid and small
trying to kill our own strength...

locking our anger
fear, rage, pain and need
inside our bellies...

keeping our heart encased in ice
‘til it turned stone cold and hollow 
unshed tears freezing and falling
building a glacier against hope...

hoping it would die silently
so not to make anyone uneasy…

it was never the choices that we made
to deliver our power into the hands of the careless…

the price we sold ourselves for
was the belief that we could never be
good enough to deserve better…