This year clothes me like an old coat
Worn at the elbows, with saggy shoulders
A smell that suggests more wears than washes,
***** tissues and receipts filling pockets
A tear in the lining from a drunken fall,
A tear of pain from an emotional fool
Wiped on a sleeve to preserve my masculinity.

I need to shed this year like a skin
As a spider, a lobster, a snake in the sun
To outgrow and move on from restrictive tissue,
Embrace the world as new again,
Fool myself on New Year’s Eve
I emerge like the butterfly from its cocoon
Reveal my flamboyant new wings,
To kid myself I am reborn.

as the May
sun sets over our
reign.
We breathe and savor
the flowers of the lily, wishing
they rise again, after the
late solstice of gloom comes and goes:

Sweet Lily, we shall meet again.
after the floods and the thaw, I shall be reborn.
but for now, my season has passed,
and the arid droughts of summer
must test the roots I have grown
in so short and beautiful a time

I don’t know you
not really anyway
it’s small talk if not silence

but I do know that
you want to be reborn as flowing water
me as a ray of light

maybe
in another way
in another life
just maybe
we could learn to love each other

Open yourself up, darling,
To the impending reality of something new
Let it fill you;
Let the promise of the unknown warm your belly

Loosen your grip on yesterday:
Let it slip from your grasp
Make room for what’s to come
Trust in the future.

Gone are the witching hours
Late night slumber is a thing of the past
Her soul is lost somewhere in oblivion
And you are lightyears away

Cleanse your temple,
Kneel before the altar of change,
Welcome what is uncomfortable;
To move forward you must let go.

She stands on an abandoned sidewalk alone
New to this
Her hair red as fire
Jeans torn like her heart
And boots black as night
Shes been through a lot
But still smiling
She was much like the phoenix
Risen from the ashes of the past
Looking to the future
And burning with a fire deep insider her
She wasn't afraid to go or it

The body replaces itself
Over time.
In 7 years
My skin will be rejuvenated
In 2555 days
I will be reborn
Your DNA will no longer be left
As a trace on my body
We become essentially
A new person
Cells become replaced
The pain will no longer be
On my face
Nor my hips
The scars will fade,
My skin will shed
Along with the feelings
I once had for you
7 years ago