trinity

there were three
blank pages
one tore itself off at the seam
angry, reveling in the ripping
edges serrated, shredding
each piece

there were two
blank pages
one balled itself up, incomplete
wrinkling question and answer and process
pillowing darkness
crumbling dream

there remained one
page left
brave to be open, courage to let
life scribble ink to each tumbling breath
brimming with passion and vulnerable voice.

~

RNH

colorfast

she bled like a kaleidoscope, losing
its colors, running down her long
slender fingers
spent desire
twisted like a coil of iron
an earring, a snake
with no basket
bent to choke.

~

RNH

cliff

dangling on the fringe
tempting the whims
one finger gripping
the ledge
to love or not love
watch me walk right up to the edge
while you worry and fret
and wring your hands.

~

RNH

Why ?

Why is it so hard
to say what we need
to mean what we say
to ask for help ?

Why is it such a crippling
helpless
feeling
when I cannot find the words...

~

RNH

echoes

I am not this ache that fills
my bones and my empty
gnawing stomach, I am not the want
that wants to be held and says nothing
I am not
lowered, tearful eyes
on long commutes home, I am not one
of the echoes, left alone
not the sound of your ghost
nor the footsteps on stairs
I am not
the absence carving its chair
I linger in the hallway of abandon
repeating
and severing.

~

RNH

cylinder

waiting for the cylinder to break
the glass beaker holding
the particles of hate
self-loathing in a test tube
bubbling on explosive
tendencies
destroying what I cannot
contain.

~

RNH

open gate

possibility would not shrink from doubt
or hide from challenge
or withdraw from the rising tide
courage would take the impossible
and brandish, like a bright sword,
its edges
guarding the heart's open gate.

~

RNH

six-word love story

I am not my
hunger, fulfilled.

~

RNH

the reading

bizarre, the arrangement
of tables and lighting
the barriers of intimacy
coax to sleep
the fury and feeling
enticing said writing
pilfered to promises
of pizza
and grades.

~

RNH

husks of shells

most people

are not real people

but just

illusions of themselves

husks of shells

floating through

circumstance

flat to the touch

idle and dry...

~

RNH

cat-er

prancing, the caterpillar
swung its wide feet
in the palpable sunshine
on the fuzzy golden leaf
and the smell of fresh cut grass
wafted as the breeze
picked up the little blossom
by its newly stretching wings.

~

RNH

in the message

took to the message, like comfort
like comfortable
food fills your belly
soft socks on your feet
and wrapped myself in the idea
of loving you forever
and being so loved
in return.

~

RNH

fisher

i fished for the penny
in navy blue waters that turned
murky as i stirred
sand from their depths
and strained, reaching further
the palm stretching, colder
meniscus, wet, crawling its way
up my arm
'til i shivered
and thought, better to wait and worry
not whether the luck will arrive
but if i can see it, when it does.

~

RNH

stolen vision

where you see a canopy
i see a broken net
where you see foundations
i see mud
stuck and drowned
where you see a challenge forming
i see the barriers
innumerable
you see connection
i see only tired
empty eyes
thankfully, this sight is restricted
to the days where i cannot
even see what's in front of me.

~

RNH

Fateful

i do not believe in fairytales
she said, i
believe in the choices that you make
i do not fashion myself
in a binary system
i am neither
the witch nor the princess nor
your fate
i do not sleep blindly
wait, expecting
love's salvation
i believe we were meant
to save ourselves.

~

RNH

scythe

i took a breath and walked
inside the tornado
where the sky moved circular
slicing and spinning, where
the gathering could not be distinguished
from the ruining and the drilling dove
downward while the spiraled cloud grew
and the gray hovered over me
the giant
with his scythe, psyche
howling as the wind whipped
the limbs from off the trees...

~

RNH

the knock

faintly, the knock heard
tap, tap
it fell
followed, echoed
where the dusk
rested, pale
on the gray blue sill
the four frames of light
made the stone shadows shift
and she, a pillar
in the darkness, heard
the knock, and answered it.

~

RNH