She speaks cannon *****
and good morning blues.
She speaks sweet lilies
and rosebuds in June.

She speaks soft
as little light beams.
She speaks rainbows
over tall evergreens.

She speaks sonnets
and low melodies.
She speaks quietly—
freedom, over me.

In the heart of the
predatory jungle
all the best deals are on the rise
monkeys are counting their rainy day pennies
all the big bad wolves are out
searching for the real prize
through their yellow tawny eyes
lions flex their heart muscles
spirits as sharp as their claws
elephants selling everything and their mother
its a ruthless stampede on all the laws
Stifling orchid vines and cloaked palm trees
Money talks on every breeze

Diamond miners digging deep
Foxes play the market steep
Owls watching close and they never sleep,
Trading secrets
Talk is cheap

Who’s the real king, who’s the real pawn?
In this parched rainforest, the birds fight for their song
Pragmatism rules the nights power
Survival is the call of the hour
Dog eats dog beneath the silver moon’s glow
Keep your bow and arrow close, don’t let them know

As for her, shes got heart but she’s got fangs
She don’t bite unless she’s backed to the wall
Shell love you deep but cross her line
You'll meet the howling wolf
every
single
time

In this predatory jungle
there is a woman
the beast
that beasts obey

Her heart is a bear
and she'll scare the hair
off a real one
But, she really is the real one

Woman
Predatory jungle
She has absolutely captured fear
and ripped it apart
with her fanged soul
Don't **** with her

Dear Nicole,
It’s been so very hard
graceful lady, I know who you are....

nobody if they ever truly knew you, would ever want to step right in your shoes
not the magic ruby ones or those worn out cowboy boots
They only saw the pretty
Never the bruised
Never the innocent child
Who never once flinched at the truth

Dear Nicole,
You were born into fire
and never had a home
You were given madness
instead of a place to grow
Small hands held onto a big dream
A heart too soft for what the world would bring

a yellow brick lie
A girl with castles in her eyes
Stepped out and got hurt
Thought love was soft

But the world had claws
And no curtain hid its flaws
You were brave you believed
But nothing was what it seemed
Yellow brick lie
They told you to fly
Then clipped your wings mid sky

wasn’t easy, was it?
To be born pretty in a world like this..
beauty isnt armor cause it never stopped the hits
a mothers glass slippers running on gravel roads
and red heels that never clicked
A house full of ghosts...
And storms that would never quit

A father repeating pain....
An uncle with no shame
You learned young
That home could be hell
Under the wicked witches
jealous spell

Too many mirrors...none of them true
Too many lions without courage
Scarecrows pretending they knew
The wicked witch after you
But you..
You kept walking through

wasn’t easy, was it?
click your heels, but where’s the magic?
a new york girl in a world off axis
carrying broken hearts and alcoholic habits
A sister gone without a trace..
A mother fading into white lace...
An old pain... dressed in blue
Wasn’t easy finding you

Somewhere over the damage
You dreamed of Kansas skies
But the bricks were broken
And the wizard fed you lies

A ****** shadowed your youth
An absence that made you crave the truth
You played brave on the surface
But no one asked what it cost
They just called it Nicoles choices
And named what you’d lost

But oh, Dorothy
You didn’t need a way home
You were the road
Ruby hearted
bright eyed
Still breathing where you should’ve died
You were magic all along
In a world that got it wrong

I was just a kid back when tapes were put in slow
Back when my uncles cancer let me know...
that dull aching pain can sing pretty...and pretty can cry
when Jagger whispered truths even a 4 year old girl
couldn't deny
From wild horses to tattoo you
I learned what the broken boys do
Oh, the rolling stones
I am forever bound to you....
childhood living was easy to do with you around
my voice was laced with micks magic....
Im all very real you see...and up my sleeves
nothing but a good heart, no cheap trick

Wild horses...running inside me
******* heart beats like a drum
raised by riffs so I ain't ever numb
The songs were my uncles gifts to me
Now those wild horses tear through my heart and
I truly see

start me up was more than a spark
It lit up the corners of my dark
Yeah, I grew up to Tattoo You
Rolling Stone blooded and always true
If you listen close you’ll see
Those wild horses still run free
in me

blue crying crystals
live behind my brown eyed vessels
seeing is a curse
but pain can be a thrill

the leaves had barely fallen
when god took you home...you said it was your calling
October 14th...the coldest light
the day I found out
that I lost you
to the dark soul of the night

the drugs crept into your good heart.. a wealthy girls shadow...
appealing and slow
took your voice...took your angel glow
but as you were falling in your dream,
you still
lifted me

they said you were gone... but I didn't believe
you were the ghost in my mirror, I know you also did see
you were the wild in every room, oh your sweet perfume
no one but me saw how deep you bled
The battles that lived inside your head

I tried to hold you, I tried so hard
But your family slipped away like a falling star
Still, I feel you wrap around my spine
Telling me softly
Im your favorite and you're still mine

i was only two shadows then
of knowing...
only a child...and a future woman
when the quintessential sky
broke open
I danced in its sun and its lie....
no awareness that war had begun under my very ground
The sky was too blue to mean harm to me..
but I saw people fainting...and I heard the angel of death's sound
I watched both castles turn into flame
No one explained what death looked like
So I stared right into the light

by evening, Dad rounded up the town
to pray for the fallen...
but I didn’t understand it...
just watched the candles flicker in my hand
I didn't know I'd be one day
a woman, slipping through
her own grief like slow moving sand

The night was thick with my whisper
words I couldn’t yet hold..
but the light pulled me forward
a gentle magic
when the world turned cold

the towers knew me
I leaned against their windows
like stained glass in a cathedral
first time I ever felt fear
bet you, you could hear late 90s twin towers life, two haunting sears
if you put my heart
to your ear

my city split like a libras night veil.
And the air
the sacred air
turned black with souls
and I burned the incense in my soul...
they were trying to stay
a little bit longer
inside someone
inside a 9 year old girl.

They are in me still.
I carry them in the caves of my lungs,
in the red Hudson river of my blood
They speak in my dreams
not with fear
but with flame.
I think they want me to carry their name
and live
for them

No one told me
that a child could become
a reliquary
of angels

I carry their smoke and their ashes in my heart
Dreams were glass windows and the glass was breaking
Angels wept.. and gods were shaking
I watched the sunlight turn into haze
And wandered like a puppet
through those firelit days

day one day two day 42
i breathed in their...ashes
and I wear them inside
the locket in my heart

new york girl...
will always know the dark
and she will never stop weeping

No one told me
that a woman could become
a reliquary
of angels