lit

I was born angry, like a firework
My mother had no lunch on the 4th of July
I was filled early with the whitest flame
Some Holy Something I could never deny

And when the flame was lit
All my colors burst
And all my pieces fell in places
Where the others thirst

Ashes for ashes, my firework
I was too much a rainbow for the night-time sky
I took a plane to meet the sun
No food in my stomach, a tear in my eye

moving

The scent of my mother's home settles at my feet
It wraps itself around my bones in welcome
I watch all her treasures march out the door in royal retreat
My childhood echo chases in desperate plea to stop them

The red wall is white and my blood grows white too
I unhinge each knuckle from its grip
I can't sit here forever in my indoor forest
Blackberries sing of summer but I can't take another trip

Here God was always good to me
Here sheltered from the crowd
And now this knowledge makes me sob out loud

We have no claim on our home
It will soon return to dust
But oh how I treasured these skins--even with lust!

Here comes the transformation
Here comes the change
Here comes the emptying

Swallowed in the love
Lost in the missing
Exhaling all of our fears from this being