seamstress

patience took her measuring tape
and tired eyes
looked over the mess before her
weighed the variable sizes
the patterns
and the shapes
on pinched cloth, the folds
giving
between her fingertips
red
pursed lips
the scissors
hovering over the line...

~

RNH

cathedral

if her body was a temple
with pointed steeples for her ears
and great tall towers of buildings
reflecting
the sky in her eyes 
would you wander there
and finding the stained glass
windows broken, the tiles
cold scattered
light
glinting
from the ceiling
where it shattered 
would you
see how the cycle
rebuilt
herself
and how her careful hands
reimagined
what strength in the beautiful
looks like
by her own definition and will. 
 
~

RNH

Snake Dance

Empathy peeling off layers
of snake skin
clothing, unnecessary
coverings
shivering from the cold
wind swirling
caught
in the sweet embrace of your
love overflowing
in the dance
of spinning, brittle
orange leaves.

~

RNH

Catastrophe

Nightmares of walking into buses
Daydreams of making them true
I cringe
at the face, that half
Tells me I can do anything
and half tells me
I am no good
Prophet prophesy truth
So the rivers marry
The split twain merge
from two
and make me one
That no conflict can possibly divide, neither
Person nor word, neither real
Nor imagined catastrophe.

~

RNH

repeat after me...

You WILL be misinterpreted.
And it will NOT be your fault.

~

RNH

Distill

I will not confess to this man
Having nothing to forgive
Having the ultimatums bound
Upon my lips, I will lie
Smooth
Untouched as the furious
Still water
Before the hurricane
Before the tsunami
One must still
Gather force.

~

RNH

Authorship

No one can take your words away
but yourself.
You hold the pen
and the silence

when you hesitate.

~

RNH

the fury

ugliness like a tornado
spun and unraveled in you
tore up the good land you grew
yourself, then chopped yourself
from branch to root
screaming at the towering darkness.

~

RNH

Take Root

You are not a deck of cards
Stop threatening
Collapse
At the slightest chance of wind.

Neither are you a brittle pane of glass
Transparent
And forced to look where others point.

You are a mighty ship
You may steer where you choose
You are a venerable oak tree
Take strength from your roots
You are the wild, bending sunshine
The power within you
To change hearts and guide minds
Inspire by simply being
You
Are more than
Your edges and the walls
That you built to protect you
I understand
I, sometimes, crumble, too.

~

RNH