remember
there were times
of lying in the grass
fresh and sweet
with morning dew
and the smell of the rich earth
cradled us like an embrace
as sun’s light slanted
east to west
across your face
while far off
laughter rung
like silver bells
hanging from the trees
mixed with bird-song
to announce the morningtide
and quicken our hearts
as if we had never woken before
and all was new and bright;

why would one
ever make the mistake
of rising up
to enter the day?

but such is life
this length of time,
a stretch of catastrophe
strung with beauty;
a stretch of beauty
strung with catastrophe
depending on where you lie

so i choose beauty
and grab hold of it
like a drowning man
grasps a far-flung rope
pulling himself
onto a doomed ship
for the sake of a few
extra moments
to watch the tempest
framed in lightning
and stand in awe
of the fact that life
is even a thing
to stand in awe of

Everything falls

No matter the peaks we climb

Small things knock us to the valleys

Small people with dangerous dreams

Until the climb stops

And we welcome the covering moss

That takes nourishment from our flesh

Take comfort when you can

This world can sting

And tear holes in our hearts

But there is light in small places

Hiding in the least expected spaces

And we know one thing is certain –

All pain comes to an end.

that damned cat is asleep
again
quiet and soft and oblivious
to death and the way of the world
she just lays curled into herself
a warm ball of ambivalence
waiting for her mum to come home
waiting forthings to begin – properly
she is brown and gold and black and white
far away dreaming of mice, once caught
and that poor little squirrel,
that damned idiot rodent
that never made it more than a month
before meeting this sleeping predator
lost inside of herself
quietly plotting unique new ways
to stomp into the bedroom at 3 am
mewling the whole fucking time

that damned cat
she’s lucky that i love her
she’s lucky that love tolerates much
and i bet she thinks the same of me

some days
gravity pulls harder
it knocks me to my knees
as if I’m somehow denser
as if I have said
do as you please

other days
I’m light as a feather
flying off in the breeze
caught in the currents of air
sailing far beyond the tops
of even the tallest of trees

Son and brother

Father and husband

Boss and writer

Roles on the stage

That I stumbled on to

And it’s all still a fog

But I make do

Tick, Tick Tick, Tick

Time ticks away

There is less time today

Than there was yesterday

A we drift in the current

Or are swept forcefully along

Toward our moment

And we shut our eyes

With thoughts of love

To carry is to sleep

Some days feel like spring

Even in the midst of winter

You sense warmth like truth

Melt away cold, dark lies

That something new may grow

That something beautiful

From long ago

Bursts forth in disrupting fervor

Laying a verdant foundation

To build a new and honest future

Spring is life after death

Spring is the empty air’s vibrant breath

A simple post

Sends a message

I am here

Today we meet

I know this

A song shrieked in the dark

I ponder in the dark

The acts perpetrated

In the light

And they are memories

To save

In the jar of my mind

To be opened

When I need

To breathe them in

As a fragrance of goodness

When the world becomes stale