Through water and sand, stands you.
Spring breaking at you feet
Your breath flicking the pages of a street paper
A black crown of nightingales at your head
Entwined in leaves and wheat trickling down stones in dew-morning light and thrones in brambles of blackberry pie
Rooted to firewood and sheer bliss of kissed moonlight
Where herons christen Stars before black velvet blanket
Bridled by Rosemary and time, caught with Mary in a dark corner
Slumped behind priest less ivy, we permeate the air and through blue blooded command and gnashing of teeth, slants me
Outside the ramshackle cwtch I the hangmedown barks of woods, kneels you.
And stopped around cockles and foundling sparrows, sings the epitaph of a fallen barbarian.
Still through desert and carcass, lies you.

JWS

She has a bruise on her left knee
reminiscent of science-book nebulas,
and the veins reaching into her palm
look like the ivy vines wrapped around
the old oak at the end of my grandmother’s

driveway. But as she presses contacts into each eye,
her pupils dilate and contract like a camera
lens shifting to accommodate for motion
blurry as her unaided vision, and her wrists
crack as if made of ill-fitted cogs chipping away--

both a tempest-tide and midnight snowfall,
yet the sum of neither.

12/18/2014

Subartic winds howling down tunnel wind slleys
sounding a lot, you know, like us.
Smoke plums would climn up past our
cupid's bows reaching fo the reaches of dark matter
"oh don't worry about me"'s
under the sweet toffee light of the cannery
black haired boys would smile and we'd
spit back more crass
the light shining down on our columellas
and the trefoils of menthol ginger history now-
a boy would take out his lighter
and somewhere behind us in the back of town
we'd hear the ghost of a christmas Mel Torme song
on the terrace of a good cafe.

Love
Sweet, sensual.
Giving, hoping, feeling.
Consumes your whole being
*Passion.

When you tell your daughter that your life has been a series of near car crashes
Forgive her for mistaking the gloss behind your eyes - as nostalgia for a wreck that could have been
Forgive her for clawing her skin with the intent of stirring a tornado so violent she could match your presence
You taught her to see you as a fatality; too late to be saved, too proud to be held

Remember that an animal licking it's wound does so out of self-preservation, not self-pity
Remember that saline is salt water and tears need to be shed and that humans are capable of healing

Remember to feel
Teach her to pummel her fists
Teach her to shout down the boys

Remember the hollow below your heart that echoes like an abandoned house
When ivy grows out from her chest cavity and encapsulates all around you
Remember that she is not unruly
She merely sees within you a potency to create beauty

And consider her ability to grow and grow and grow
Encourage her to expand
Be mindful that little girls should never need permission to occupy space
Be humble - she may even teach you a thing or two

Envy, like ivy, itches
But its rash is green, not red
And the victims affected
Are those who caused it instead.
Jealousy, like fire, burns
But its blaze is cold, not hot
And the flames spread
Inward in the heart it caught.
Resentment, spite
And bitter greed are bred
Within the veins of the
Jade blood that’s bled.
The ice cold heart plays
Tricks on its clueless host.
Jaded is the one who
Started off caring most.
No one likes a needy fool—
It’s envy’s tragic curse.
A loving angel shall be
Turned into their very worst.

Isn’t it funny how things change?
The monster I am today,
Was once the loving friend
You simply turned away.
I admit I am no saint, but I was
No sinner to you, ever.
I just couldn’t stand it when
You thought you found better.
How was I to know you
Couldn’t see that I was hurt?
I hope even now you’ll think
Back on how I at least came first.
I’m not sorry, and I don’t think
I ever could be
For you closed your eyes
And let envy take me.
The monster I am today,
Look into my eyes,
You created this person
You so fervently despise.