1 Secrets and oaths
He never held back on the hug.
That was why she kept coming
And he kept coming
And she swallowed, over and over and over,
The lie.
It could have been you.
But it was always his house
His bed
Her job to hide and tell herself
This would be the last time.
But he never held back on the hug.
2 Party
There’s a creature hidden
In the forgotten back corner of your garden,
Where soft moss grows over pavers and dandelions run free,
That bleeds tears.
You’ll never see the creature,
But if you go down to the forgotten back corner of your garden,
Treading lightly,
And crouch low,
Knees in the dirt
Peer
Closer
Wait until the breeze tousles your hair and the shadows shift
Then, if you are still enough, your only movement
Gentle breath and eyelashes sweeping your cheek,
You might feel it.
3 Above the trees
Above the trees, I can breathe.
Seems strange.
Everyone else breathes with the trees,
Oxygen in, oxygen out
Carbon dioxide exchange.
But I crave a different air, one
I cannot share
Except with you
And I will not ask you to breathe for me.
4 The road not taken
Real good, you said
But the way you said it
Wasn’t real
Or good
Looking in your rear view
At the dust we left behind.
5 I watch you go
Go, cat
And dance
Everyone’s watching
Your suede-soled shoes kick up the dust on the floor
While everyone’s watching
There’s no music here except the tune in your head
And everyone’s watching
Everyone’s watching
Everyone’s watching
The game.
6 The hope of it all
Spidersilk keeps me here
Thin, invisible,
Strong and inescapable
Threads, and the hope that maybe
Maybe
I am wrong.
7 Almost
You are my story,
My sound, my breath, my word
A brushstroke, a footfall away
From splendour
But between us a chasm
I can’t see how to cross.
8 In love
I fall slowly, hoping
You’ll wait for me, knowing
It’s you
It was always you
Waiting for my mind to catch up
With my heart
And my body to open.
9 The legacy of memories
Your footprint may be small
On the scale of a global phenomenon,
But the yellow viola pushing up
Through a gap between paving stones
Is no less crushed for your
Careless step. Perhaps more so
For the ease with which you might have
Been kind.
10 Epiphany
The air sparks with invisible fire,
Anticipation its own kind of electricity
Singing to my blood.
All the sweat
All the late nights
Favours called
Early starts
Midday breakdowns:
What if it’s terrible
What if no one comes
What if we never get the curtain up
I haven’t done enough
But now, for this moment, the suspension of fear,
Prelude to success (or failure),
This is why I live.
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