broken shelf

reaching for the broken shelf
with chipped, white teacups
and faded, blue towels
longing for the permanency of childhood
when everything was thought to last
forever
so I take my wooden stepstool and scooch
a little closer
comforted by the hope in fragile things.

~

RNH

castle

wobbled under the pressing wave
the swirl of questions, so catching
so proven
the itsy, zigzagging fissure
of worry, fast
splits
like a pulled thread spreading
infinitely, from one tiny
kink in my infallible fortress
as you pointed out
I do not have to be
so hard.

~

RNH

Adorned

I have ornaments of our life together
Adorning my happy limbs
A grocery list sparkles
In my left pocket, a borrowed pen
Waits to be returned
Glows, expectantly
And I, a Christmas tree, year-long
Overjoyed, beam
And the drawings on my refrigerator
Are ever-multiplying, playful
Luminous and healing.

~

RNH

gather

she gathered up the pain in the world
like buckets of flowers, spilling
their seeds
to the wind, their petals
already relinquished
to the frail terminality of time, and yet
each blossom promised their life
their short visit here
to flourish, endure and to give
freely, the will
placed, fortressed
by good intentions
imagine--
what could happen...

~

RNH

lotus

flowering, trickling
down her spine
the petals, pale, opened
delivering light
to the coldest, dark reaches
the coiling shrine
her body, the holy
creation, divine.

~

RNH

Writing Instructor

when i write
there is usually a keyboard
beneath my fingers
a pen
inking paper
or a smartphone typing
words
spill out from me
liquid and tangible
translucent and tangled
able to twist and turn
and mean many
different things
and yet this woman
struts about the room
as if she is the first to walk it
each heel, a command from her mouth.
i step. you listen. i speak.
you be quiet.
and talks about
poetry, saying it is
not about the world
in isolation
it lives
on thoughts and feelings
alone
and i think she must
not enjoy
her ideas or inquisitive eyes
aimed at the self, when her
descriptions are all
unkind, though adept.
when i write
i am as much a part of the world
as the world is a part of me
after all, even she
made it here
in these lines.

~

RNH

The Change

I changed the flickering
Light bulb inside
When the fixture grew dim
And the socket, too weary
When failure and pride
Clouded out what could shine
I let go and gave
Both, shelter
And time.

~

RNH

Un-box-able

There is an urgency to understand
The world
In graspable, tangible wholes
So that the pieces satisfy the insatiable
Need to connect to the soul
In every pulsing, unboxable moment
There are patterns traversing the old
Rivers, a drop
In the veritable ocean
You are one and the same, just
Let go.

~

RNH

Nightmare

The night rose slowly, lifting wings
Stood towering, glaring down
At its feet
Shook a little frightened soldier
You will not defeat me
The girl said, almost as if asking
A question
And the dragon spoke nothing
No words were needed
No roaring or fire-breathing antics
The demon
Worked its magic
By simply being believed in
All doubts and fears a mere creation
Of the mind
And as soon as the brave knight
Realized her potential
The dark lifted and the sky
Broke with morning light.

~

RNH

to the sailor

unrolled the scroll
the ancient, fraying map
curled with old
knowing edges
and ached, most of all, to believe
that where love pointed
there was truth.

~

RNH

prisoner

untied her hands and lifted
chains and freed her
from her former
hard prison
and looked into eyes, wild
and blinking
full and afraid
to trust.

~

RNH

starve

I would stay a million miles away from you
with only a few feet
between us, I would starve
for lack of a better feeling, the love never
having enough proof
to not abandon
me
at someone else's door
nameless
cold
and crying.

~

RNH

unbending

back to unbending concrete
legs, soft-crossed
feet, showing their vulnerable
surfaces, touching
only the outside of the world
too much to hold inside.

~

RNH

write hope

she endeavored to write hope
into her darkness, create light
amidst her sadness, deliver love
from its ever-shrinking hiding
place and put
the fear back in its sheathe
the hand forever reaching
for knife
or pen.

~

RNH

necklace

playing with pieces
of black jewelry, slender
fingers twirled around crystals and beads
harnessing bitterness, anger and greed
sharp as the carved, ebony edges.

~

RNH

to the wind

hiding behind bangs and bent
eyelashes, curled with duplicity
she remembers when you left
her
how the cold
hit twice
and stung for weeks
and she buttons up her coat
a little higher
to the wind
and fear
the distance in her disappearing voice
erasing everything.

~

RNH