"Wonder"land

"Wonder"land

If I take in a breath

Hold it

Feel it inside swirling and sinking

Filling and draining me at the same time

And then let go, let it out

The hopes and secret desires

Things left unsaid.

Would they be granted?  Would they be heard?

I decide to try, how hard can it be?

And then... I pause

Wings break, horses run lame (if they show up at all)

There are still dragons, and towers, and frankly

My hair is much too short to be of any use.

I turn away

But the something catches my eye

Candlelight flickering in the glass to my right

The mirror- it calls to me with its siren's song

I'm captivated by its gilt,

Frightened by its darkness

Yet intrigued by a smile

I lean in

Straining to hear the sweet sounds

Peering in and catching glimpses of hundreds of points of light

I'm tipsy and should step back

Catch my breath

Steady myself

But I'm hypnotized, caught in the spell

Oh... the prize

Like the brass ring on a carousel

I stretch out my hand

And tumble

Head over heels

Heels over head

What have I done? 

Hanging just out of reach

"Stars"

The night stretches out

An ebony blanket spread out across the sky

With a cascade of glittering jewels on top

I can almost touch them

The thought of pocketing a couple flits through my mind

A pair, to bridge the distance

From one side to the other

As I sit I contemplate

the shades in the tapestry moving from end to end

and which is the better legend- the design or the shade?

To know where I am, in relation to

someone else, sitting in the night

Wondering if somehow we're enfolded in that same inky cloak

Tucked in as we lie back

Alone together in the solitude of the  dappled darkness 

In the Garden

Reach up and grab the ripe, round fullness

Feel skin, smooth against your fingers

Bring the sweetness to your lips

Take a delectable nibble 

Inside is the moist, tender flesh

Savour it with your mouth

until your hunger is sated

Forbidden fruit is the most exquisite temptation 

Cup of Tea

If I was flawless

Would it be easier?

Easier than to have to deal with the day to day bumps?

The grit.  Seeing beyond the fingerprints and the cracks.

Or harder.

No comparison of the smoothness of your handle

To the fact that my edge is chipped

No salving the wound of the scratch that might be lurking

With the fragments of the gash running across me

I’m not sure.

I can keep on

Buffing, polishing, gluing

I’ll never get there

And maybe I’ll be close enough

And still far enough

That you will set yourself upon me

The Spiders' Waltz

The Spiders' Waltz

A pair of them

Five not eight

Living on 88
Chasing passion and perfection

Tones and time

Crawling up and down

Over and under

Racing, tumbling

Nearly tripping leg over leg

Then still, frozen

but for the slightest tremor

Suddenly, they leap

Landing lightly before they are off again

From corner to corner

Making angles, creating patterns

Weaving intricacies of color from black and white

Now the leaps have become insistent

Aggressive in their pursuit

Determined to extract the cries of their prey

After their conquest

They creep back

Slowly

Quietly

Leg over leg

A final sprawling stretch

Then stillness.

The fading light dancing

In the gossamer strands

Of their creation.

Winter

WINTER

Tunneling through

the cold biting

stinging

numbing

the grey

is endless

heavy and wet

yet trudging on

Digging out

bit by icy bit

a race against

the tiredness

the paralyzing cold

Can the end be seen

no, it is still

white out 

The Chase

Through the meadow in the night

I creep, cautiously testing for

The errant leaf, the careless twig

Eschewing the well-trodden path

In pursuit of…

Achieving calluses, I think wryly

Though I know that isn’t my aim

It is out here, amid the darkness that I come

To find the flickers

To chase the embers

That are so tantalizingly near

Beckoning like a siren’s song

The journey is a myriad of emotions

This pursuit- my internal odyssey

And if I attain my desires- what then

Will there be nirvana- eternal nothingness?

Will I be consumed- like Icarus?

Or will it be an endless labyrinth

With the end only being the beginning

It isn’t clear, however,

My feet do not falter, save

On those stray rocks and twigs

The chase is what consumes me.