Would you meet me for lunch (again)?
I still enjoy a meal of sushi…
Especially a sashimi plate
With its bright colors and delicious cuts
Bedded on white sheets of radish shreds.
Please find a day you won’t be rushed.
Let’s take our time to gently grasp
Each melting bite
Held gently twixt our chop-sticks
Pause to dip in salty sauce
with wasabi’s potent burn blended lightly in
We’ll delicately feed ourselves
Slowly let the soft smooth flesh
Rest a moment on the lips and tongue
Feeling every subtle flavor…
Between the mental nourishment
of our shared conversation
(So long it has been missed)
How I hunger to finally revive
such simple moments

You say the day
I’ll tuck the hope away

It’s just a lunch…
only lunch…
…

He suffocates me
Asks me who I want to be
Then snuffs the fire trying to breathe
My birthday wish? I’m trapped!
He demands reply… Set free these wings
Let her phoenix fly.

but what do I know
chained down here below?
what do i really know
of love’s tragic flight..
it’s pointless to fight
so I meekly say, goodnight

Did it again
repeated my sin
Let those feelings take the wheel
Expectations so unreal
Thunderstorm that stole the sun
****** up wishes come undone
Days wrapped up in a blurring daze
**** is scattered, lost, ablaze
…
As havoc’s ashes settle
passion is lost, no color
life has turned lack-luster
the fire has gone
just dullness on & on
Despair, an eternity
of empty
Wrong

The universe conspires against me
Proclaiming with each futile wish of mine
“NO, you fool! IT SHALL NOT BE!”
In your deep wound feel the brine

Laughingly it thwarts my every effort, every hope
Capricious deities strike thunder from their skies
Wrong connections, caged pretensions,
pain! I cannot cope

Power lost, appointment cancelled
Their bolts of lightning pummel down
He commands, he’ll determine where I fly
So I fall wingless to the ground

Then for a final blow I’m questioned
“Do I really know of love?”
Should his earthquake break my shackles
To a more fearful dungeon I’ll be shoved

They wrote it on her DNA
From mother’s mother’s mother
And all those aunts and uncles
The deacons, elders, teachers, preachers, leaders
They wrote her wrong:
  
“He’s weak, so be responsible”
“Don’t cry” “kneel down”
“Listen” “obey” “because I said so”
“sinner” “he died for YOU”
“Thou Shalt Not” … “shalt not” … “shalt not”…
“Be a good girl”, “say ‘sorry’”, “bow and pray”
“OBEY!”
“You must Forgive!!” Forgive, forgive…
  
(from infant, to girl, to ******* that grew)
Walk the line, speak OUR “truth”
THERE IS NO YOU!
REMEMBER: please, not pleasure
“That’s right, Kneel down, Apologize…”
Meek is pretty
Femininity
Yesss…bow…
seek PERFECTION

“Desire? NO! Desires don’t belong to you!”
Oh, Their desires? Honey, they can’t help it…

GIVE  
F O R G I V E
don’t live
don’t be
Just see
OTHERS
…
…
…
years
…
free
…
me
…
yet haunting whispers of the child’s ghost
remnants of her twisted DNA
Echoing cellular repercussions
through the years into the now
…it’s complicated…
(“May I have a rewrite?” she’d meekly plead)

“To late” wrote fate
she shrugs, “why hate?”
decides resigned just to deal

Fashioned to a piercing Arrowhead…
Don’t “tough-love” me! I’ve heard it said,
A good whipping was proof he cared.
I’ve knelt in confession to prepare
For a switch lashing my behind,
discipline—“for love” she piously chimed.
Caring hearts don’t char their object of affection
Or carry knives to slice away obsession
Either love me tender, love me sweet;
or speak honestly—
you have no heart for me.

I’ve long believed in keeping bridges,
Building them, maintaining them,
Rarely setting them aflame—
only the most detrimental structures
and even then with greatest care…
Yet of late it seems some pyromanic demon
Deep within my psyche has escaped
Wielding a fiery weapon haplessly
against these structures in my life.
Soon I fear all will burn
At my own demon hand
and I will tumble to the seething rapids
Far below
If so, I wonder:
Where will the waters carry me?
Who will survive?
Can I stop
setting fire to this bridge
on which I live?

I remember, in all 5 senses, you.
Dreams of you, light up all perceptions.

Visions pierce my sight
with vivid colors—red & blue
your tender eyes,
your beating heart,
lips lined with passion
back-dropped by seaside sunset brilliance.
You are my light.

Scents linger in mind’s breath—
you, so clean, shower-fresh;
tangy tangerine;
flowers--lavender and lilac,
varied hues of scented roses,
garden of our memories

My tongue, hungry for you, tastes our history as
shared popcorn, counted sushi, big soft pretzels, sampling tasty foods;
a shot of ***** from your mouth, light-headed shock;
and most missed that freshly long minty kiss; water licked from clean soft skin; the taste of you within. . .mmm

Your sounds whisper in my dreams—
rhythmic breathing; rhythmic heartbeat;
soft light lasting laughter ringing in my ears (though now long faded, those tones echo ever through the chambers of my mind);
gentle listening caring voice
(must you say “good-bye”?)

Forevermore I’ll miss, your loving touch—
warm & gentle, firm & safe,
strong secure hug, encompassing;
Playful moments, teasing
Would those moments ‘neath your skin,
Moments merging bodies, might return & lasting be.

I dream in all 5 senses wistfully,
wishing fully to sense you in reality.

Sleepless, congested, thoughts a blur
Now through the haze I see a maze–
Wandering paths that tease
but never lead to you.
Are these imaginations of your love
just a fevered dream,
conjured by my weakened mind
to feed this ravenous lust
ever aflame for your heart?
Even as I’m slipping on the edge of sleep
my heart and mind plunge deep
Into the aching longing felt for you.
Then the questions:
Do you despise or fear me?
Are you indifferent or disgusted
learning my desire?
Why do you hide yourself from me?
Perhaps my intensity drives you away?
Could it yet be that somewhere deep deep down
inside the smallest darkest pocket of your heart
you’ve tucked away and buried
a pulsing breathing love still felt for me?
Undying…yes, I think this might be the truth
that frightens you
hiding in the depths of this dizzying maze
eluding my desire,
eluding discovery
blocking me from knowing
whether that crushed love
Remains.

Gege thinks he’s so clever
Whispering mischief in Didi’s smaller ear
As if Mother watching
never was a little sis
nor sat, a child, at her father’s knee
hearing each fascinating story
of how his older brother
stirred the ***…

Receding, returning to me
More space to wish I could be
Caressing your face, brushing the bristle
with fingers gentle, lights as thistle
down. Circling your lips before we dip
In. This sin, beloved,
dreaming of love-
ing you.
I want to touch your face
Someday when this pain is erased.
Is that not in a future
rewritten? No
pain…

Cold rain-showers flood the winters here.
I’ve felt bubbling cool waterfalls
touch the senses like
ruby red ***** shots shared.
Cool waterfalls, winter rain showers, sensual shots
all remind…
like
the warm shower just now—long, sensual
Pleasure
I find
Myself
finally at peace with the water
(when fibers grip as muscles pulse
and water falls)
a heart throb? or break? so close . . .
both leave me gasping for life-giving breath
This water reminds…
If only to find
another guilty shot shared with you.
rather I’m
missing peace?
Am I pretending?
Where is life without a heart?
(pulsing muscle fibers of life)
where is my heart?
where is the missing piece?
Am I Really at peace with the water?
I am more now, at least,
than I was at 23

Cool crisp morning
Bright blue sky with scattered clouds
Happy children’s chatter
Snow-dressed mountains in the rearview mirror
Rise regally across the fog-cloaked Sound
framed by earthy evergreen spires…
These vibrations of sound and light
trace smiles ‘round my face & eyes
on this otherwise monotonous  morning drive to school.

No fireworks without you, Star in my sky
Red lips wishing yours would draw nigh
White hot flame burns still with desire
To be lost in your blue eyes I’ll never tire
Striped shadows cast by bars unseen
No independence from this in-between
Wearing red white & blue, this 4th of July
While secretly wishing you’d reoccupy
realms of my body, king of my heart
this homeland beckons for you to impart
that freedom I felt so long ago
when you spoke softly what I still know,
I love you… & I love you too
I’ll remember you with my red, white and blue

As I lay here Drifting,

Tired, nearly passed into that otherworld of sleep,

mind reaches out before it fades to plead:

Would you, my Love, spare some moments in my night

Penetrate the passage to my mind

Engage me for a dream or few?

I have no care where we go, what we do

As long as we are happy together, just we two

Holding hands and laughing

Stolen secret glances…

Embrace me for a moment as best friend,

Touch me as Beloved

Hold me next to your forever

or just simply BE with me in my dream

Spare a fleeting moment here & now with me tonight

Together

Let me dream with you immerged.

Machines of war
Wreckage of more
than cities in their wake
Mothers and daughters *****
Children scarred with horrors
Homes gone
Families broken
People broken
All for…
Why?
The devil doesn’t dwell
In hell
He commands from capitols
He judges generals
He wages war
He deals in destruction
On earth
On children huddling in holes
On women without rights or hope
On mothers and fathers who fight
For life
Can this devil be destroyed?

In the waking,
In my dreams
I miss your presence
Everywhere it seems
To sit beside you close,
to hear your thoughts…
It’s you I want the most
but you are gone.
You’ll return to living
Half a world away
and I’ll return to living
blanketed by grey.
Despite my hopes & efforts
I still just cannot see
A path into your now.
I mourn what will not be.

There’s a freak in her brain taking over again.
Dormant she waited, tortured then baited…
Emotional break…
“Once, Love? for memories’ sake?”
Yet, once is not enough.
Starved, she begs.
She’s rough. She’s plagued.
Demanding nightly, never lightly—
impassioned penance, love’s disease,
maintaining as fresh though long deceased
those mutual sins, two decades past…
Would you put her heart to rest?
Alas! her need is too deep, too vast
while you’ve no care left to soften her nest
Mourning, consumed, she resumes
downcast.

I know I don’t have you
but I don’t want to lose you.

My heart compresses and aches
and shakes and breaks
at the mere thought of pain too great
for you to stake your love on me.
The gift I need would make you bleed.
Yet shattered I plead for a sign, a seed.
Might even the tiniest sliver of you be mine?
I’m sorry! So sorry! How I stab and slice
with each roll of the dice.
You can’t pay the price and I should think twice.
This hunger is strong, has gnawed decades long
but you are far gone.
My desire cut you, bled you out,
Destroyed each last sprout of hope I fear
Only my doubt is left to muck about
in this drought of you.

Still all I want to do
is mend, befriend, heal, renew
Converse, embrace & always love you.
My chest heaves with a sigh
for drops of your love I cry
to know more of you, still I try,
I treasure your deep diamond core
It’s you I’ve always adored
Unsatisfied, I want more.
Instead all I taste
Salty tears on my face
and a huge empty waste
where you self-erased.

I know I don’t have you
so why can’t I leave this place?
I don’t want to lose you
Still

I wanted just to briefly say
How much I thought of you today
I hope you sense my love and care
Throughout your day, as if I’m there.
Always in my heart
With Love,

Many forms it takes:
Aching, stabbing, numbing, chronic,
dull crescendoing to piercing pang
I shift; it smites, no tonic
for the bone-deep bruise, the sharpened fang.

Mind & body too united
Too in tune to pain
Heart too unrequited
Meds & treatments all in vain

End-of-day: I’m wasted, broken, spent
Snake now coils, flicks its tongue
Injured python slithers to emotions’ scent
Constricts the soul, and I’m undone.

Do you remember how
I’d always catch you gazing?
However sly you tried to be
in sneaking glances from your softly hooded eyes
I somehow knew, would turn to look at you…
I still do… Know, I mean…
When you think of me with your cool blue eyes
gazing filled with tenderness and care.
Like tonight… I sensed your affection
& smiled across the miles in your direction.
Did you catch my twinkling grateful eyes?
Your kind thoughts… they really do make my day.