master bedroom

“master bedroom”
thick black ink
soaked into the side of the box

and, let’s face it
you were the master
i was just a tenant

but this snow-dusted morning
has me wondering
if people can truly change
can masters ever be anything kind?
can tenants make their own way?
can the ones we love somehow devour us?
can the things we fear come to inspire us?

as for this box full of misery
we said “goodbye” at the goodwill
one man’s pain, another man’s pleasure
and i’m off to make my own way

enameled

twice a day
we walked the winter water
discovered remnants from another world
and left a bit of ours
impressions in the sand

“enamored” was the word
you used to describe
how you felt about me

but my mind drifts to “enameled”
as if you’ve sealed my heart
i’m enclosed
captured in your dream
like the ocean
covers the seafloor
i am yours

sunrise in st. augustine

our star came roaring onto the canvas
sticky citrus orange
streaked across a buttery blue horizon

one message for our past
old dusty decisions being burned away
a mourning incense to start our day

one message for our future
the fire of love, here to stay
sketched in the sky, a brilliant display

and you rest, still
with all this metaphor
screaming through our window
catching your hair with its fire
reminding me of the beauty I’ve found
mine to care for
until the sun sets down her brush

let them go

in my core i know
the only way to keep them
is to let them go

her smile

i see her smile
through a masked sky
the sun, splitting the clouds

and she lifts me
arrows piercing hearts
soaring to the unknown
a discovery in the deep

the difference between birds and people

it is time
to turn the birds free
to follow their glances
with our very own march
a celebration of time
in submission to gravity
flying but fallen