royal sunday*

Somehow the patterns of my mind collected
As I travelled through my day,
But I never saw you sneaking in,
I never saw you enter,
There beneath the open sky
And all the freakish fray.

Though God knows you were only ever thoughts away,
In any fleeting moment
Of any patient day.
You never were my best thought
By daytime or by night,
But always a morning's fantasy,
An evening's melodic delight.

Somehow the balance of my mind turned over unexpected
As dream-skin hugged reality's bones
And everything just melted.
And all the Venice colours burst,
My bloodlust unaffected.

The ocean smiled as its hands caught the wind
And they both pushed my feet to make sandal-prints there
Where the beat of the drum-circle raced with my heart
And they met with your own in the air.

Your vision kept flashing and tearing apart
As my eyes blinked to see you,
As the sun dazed my mind,
And before long you passed me in lone regal line.
I couldn't ignore you, oh where would I start?

So I turned and I touched you and disturbed your rhythm
With dusty brown words like sand stars in your hair,
To hold for you some faint, lasting confession
And leave its imprint there.

And soon enough I closed my mouth—
And bitter taste upon my tongue,
I ran ecstatic into the sea.
With some odd hunger, wandered aimlessly,
Ever tied like a puppet to my destiny.

Oh to play her Majesty, the Queen, on royal Sunday!
Sweet, limitless, my dreams,
But they'd trap me again one day,
Shoeless walking in the sand,
With empty hope in empty hand.

lioness

Her feet slipped and pattered;
Slowly, haphazard.

She never felt more in danger
Than in the presence of this stranger.

His four feet down, her two feet in--
The more she longed to shed her skin,

The more she raced to keep his stride,
The more she felt he tried to hide,

And now the woods seemed like a cave,
Echoing warnings to the brave.

Though tangled under roots and wire,
His footprints spread like wildfire

And burnt her soles as swift she tread
And left the dead to bury dead.

For more than once she died inside
And wailed for the earth to hide

Her deep within its shifting sands,
Like water drips through open hands.

And more than once she caught a glimpse
Of his golden tail as evidence

To warm her heart and push her deeper
Into a jungle that could not keep her.

Then suddenly the light went black--
Aware there was no going back--

She sank into the cold, wet ground
And hurled a most ferocious sound

From deep inside that startled her
In wordless patterns, familiar.

And suddenly the Lion appeared
Like radiant fire and darkness cleared

As he bid it die, as he bid it flee
As he roared in awful majesty!

And stooping down to me he wept,
For never a girl so frightened crept--

Stripped of all her bravery,
Helpless in her slavery.

I gasped to breathe the breath he gave--
Released myself that he could save

My carcass collapsed upon his mane
And with my tears flowed all my pain.

I tried to speak, tried to explain.
My tongue was numb, it moved in vain.

He silenced me in tenderness
And all he said was, LIONESS.

thoughts in captivity

My time is ripe but my hour is dim--there is poison in my bone.
My swell is clean then I crash and burn and my thoughts stand naked, alone.

Oh my thoughts they look a lot like fears, a lot like trails, a lot like tears
--fleeting moments and hopeful years!

My time is bitter but my hour is sweet--I'm a wretch in the lap of peace.
My creep is frail and my coat is shedding; scaley skin in painful release.

Oh my thoughts they come disguized as sages, disguised as lovers; freaking golden cages!
--choking ideas, battles of the ages.

Oh that I would take them captive, instead they trap me behind bars.
Oh to feel the earth beneath me and grasp at life under the stars!

For there my lines were sewn and written, welded in their shining rock.
And there Love gave me all His blessing when I wailed for the breath of God.

Oh my thoughts they sound a lot like questions, a lot like shouting, a lot like digestion
--patient processing of information!

Oh that I would take them captive and plunge them in the deepest sea!
For then I think I could discover why God ever thought of me.