Everything and Nothing

With everyone watching
no-one will see
how i fall in love
when your hips shift to mine

Our hearts beat rhythms
syncopated time to music
breath leaves our lungs
in controlled bursts

We will dance
and it will be
everything and nothing
within the circle of our arms

View from the Train

The river once wide and deep is now full of yellow weeds. Reduced to nothing more than a sluggish stream, the water has gone to feed the mostly fallow plots of land that line both side of the train tracks upon which i travel. There are no people here, just signs of recent life newly abandoned or waiting for their return.  Twilight casts shadows in the windows of the dark houses, too dark to see if some one has returned home.

A carpet of tall yellow weeds, a cherry tree in faded bloom in the middle of a small field. As we pass i wonder who will eat the Cherries?

A small shrine at the back of an old house, faded flowers adorn the vases.  The grass is long, and i wonder if anyone thinks about the dead buried here. If i pass this way again will the shrine still be there? Will it have been replaced by a shiny new apartment building? Or will i be looking the other way when we pass by and like everyone else forget to look for the long buried dead.

What i like about riding in trains is the brief glimpse into the lives of others. The backs of houses are exposed to the tracks we get to see what people hide from view, the parts they keep hidden and private.  I love these brief back lit vignettes, these stolen private moments illuminated by the train as we pass by. I'll cup my hands to the windows to see a little better in the fading light and darkness. I'll see you, just for a moment, and then you remain frozen in time forever as we pass quickly by.

Left Hand of the Devil

Unbeknownst to me

The devil borrowed my left hand last night

I woke up and my wrist and hand was sore 

From doing god knows what.

Be careful what you dream

You never know if it became reality in sleep

Or maybe i was fighting in another world

Or dancing with the ghosts of friends

Was it a dream? 
Now i don't know
Did i dance with you in your sleep last night?
Because i think my hand hurts from holding you.

 

Claws became fingers

When no one was looking we shed our skins
cat like we clawed our way into another
believing that this new skin was better
believing that if we could walk two legged
we would become more than we once were

Our eyes no longer feline
we couldn't see in the dark
we missed the stalking of prey
we missed the night chases
we missed the call of conquest
we wanted out out of these new skins
only to find our senses had dulled
and our claws became fingers

Elsewhere

How many days have I existed in this space of nothingness
These hours without end -  this time without name

When everything else has been quantified
This gap still exists - or do we make it
Every time we cross a country or continent

Here I am pushing my way through the fabric of the world
Digging my fingers in and stretching time
While hold has been placed on the rest of my life

This is neutral territory - crossing oceans and above the clouds
This is some where between and if i had to name it
I'd call it elsewhere

Lady by The Lake

She is a fickle hearted lover
but i care for her like no other
full of Spring time promise
and warm presumptions
She tempts me with her verdant green
her waters so inviting
kisses me sweetly with lake side mists
a blustery embrace of wind
through streets recently bereft of snow
salty are her ways in winter
yet my lips are ready for her summer taste

A Country of Our Own Making

You held onto me
while the shadows shifted
and the light crept in through the blinds
wrapped tightly in my arms
you ran a marathon in your sleep
your body flexed and pulsed under my hands
jolted half awake you pulled me closer
and whispered words i didn't understand
This night was a dream
a half reality of stolen moments

We are together somewhere else
in a country of our own making
Because on foreign soil
we can be anything we want
And pretend for a short time
that our lives are different
full of wonder and excitement

We are new people here
discovering ourselves in this new land
laughing as we walk in these strange directions
getting lost among winding streets with no name
kissing in the darkness while rain falls around us

Upon returning home
we may find all things new again
yet some things remain unchanged
The sun has shifted while we were gone
the light seems different now
We opened our eyes
and you let me go.