Don’t squeeze
me back in
to keep you
company.
You mistake me
for the carapace
I flew out
of.
Tag: growth
Palm Tree
My favorite is the palm tree’s woven trunk
smoothly grooved beneath my hands
As if carefully planed by a divine carpenter
the rough bark nestles against my cheek
The sweet decay of coconuts counterpoints
dropping bounty without end
I too, seek to become a tree
and layer years upon me
This is the harsh truth, I’ll sugarcoat it none
Games of luck and games of chance
Flying a kite on a warm summer’s day
Are wonderful, stress-free pastimes
Those childhood modes of play.
But do not think to tinker with my heart
To take it apart and wait until I erect it again
Do not mistake an emphatic “NO” for a start
And resume those cruelest forms of trickery.
That façade that proclaims kindness is false
That smile only searches for a new toy to break
Like a self-deluded hero
You mistake a friend as a vampire to stake.
And though I loved you, and showed myself true
I love myself more, than to be treated so by you.
Anticipating 2014
A red calendar
Hung in place of the twelfth month
New Year sown from last
Life
Forests or white sands
A beacon lit only at night
The sparrow with its fledglings;
One does not have to travel far to find change
When the green there today
Was not in bloom yesterday
Growing Pains
To reconcile childhood to adulthood
One must kill parts of one to attain the other
But does the end of naivety mean the end of truth?
What is the new definition of happiness
If it morphs with each passing moment?
Growth
Underground, the seed grows hidden
From snow and rain and prying eyes
Perhaps it’ll sleep a thousand years
But one day it will bloom
Strangers on the Same Road
All people have gaps in their knowledge
But usually attribute that ignorance to others
And think that they, themselves, cannot be understood
But once they realize we are all similar
In our permutations of differences
They also realize those voids are meant to be filled
By the meeting of others
RED GLADIOLA 