Learn to Dance

Tread lightly
and learn to ignore
the world
that might jump
the tracks
like a machine
out of control,
swerving across the solid
lines, color flowing
everywhere.

Tread lightly
and learn to dance
alone with flare
and flounce
around the edges
of your skirt.

Beauty lives there,
in the halo
around the silences
of all that joy.

Another Way Home

My fingers have fused to the wheel
leaving this place --lost so deep
in loneliness it seems impossible to conjure
the truth of where I have been.

I inflate these tires of trust daily
hoping to spark my interest in
a new way of doing things.

Instead, I have failed to do
what was needed to be done;
to find my way out of the darkness
and sweep the path clean,

clear it of debris
that clutters my view
with so much sorrow.
Blackness in the midst
of a sunny November day
of copper light.

The Chain

In the end
I will choke
as the chain pulls tight
around my throat,

me, straining to break free
and run away from under the porch
where I have hidden for so long
from the abuses of my days--
harsh words
and the newspaper
to my nose and haunches.

I dive deep into this vision
of the links I have forged
of my sorrows
and that hold me
inches from everything .

The best I can hope for now
is to hear the metal slip,
groaning under his breath
and prayers slipping
from between my teeth
as I whistle
and call out
to anyone who will listen--

It is time to come home.

Reminders of the Way it Is

The hourglass shape
of my hip moves to my waist,
the small of my back, sighs patiently,
gasps where a partner's hand
gathers the body in,
guides me

onto the dance floor
of all dance floors
and claims me;
no time absently lapses,
leaves me wondering
which direction to move

I sway, an eel in the surf,
hoping to swim to safety
to where the sun slants through
the clear blue-green
and makes us laugh
at the silly sun
and how she counts
day after day
the beauty of skin
and hair
and all that
disappearing
blood.

Oath

October is the perfect month
to travel with your heart
after taking an oath
swollen with loving kindness

an oath to love yourself
better than you ever have

without reservation for the ways
you've lost in the past,
given everything and fallen
flat on your pride,
and come up with nothing.

This time, this day
swear to everything holy
that you will fly
like a small drop of water
blessed and disguised as a crane
taking flight from the fountain
of living words.

Retreating Storm

This private island
of suffering--

a stitch in my side
after the longest run
from my fear
and sorrow
that will not leave,

is not mine.

I will not live here,
abandoned and broken
like a lifeboat
with broken oars.

I will not be beaten
by the angry police
or the mob that would cast
stone after stone in my direction.

Instead, let me sit quietly in the sun.
Let me breathe the air
and watch the sea lap lightly
on the shore where healing grows--

This tide brings tiny treasures.
This brine gathered in the depths of grief
is dispursed with the boiling clouds
and the rain and the salty winds
of the lightness of another retreating storm.