the things that i would say to you if i thought that you would listen to me

i know better
than to tell you the truth.

~

RNH

Kneeling

The day would come
When knee, soft bending
Would trickle down
Fault lines, bitter tears, and ache
Remembering missteps
Yesterday's triplets, out
of time, the misjudgments
Burned into the brain
Seared in with hot coals
Their orange glow
Pride
Bursting the case
Revealing
Error
to be the greatest gift, this
Failure
Taught her how
to forgive.

~

RNH

blanket stitch

the grandmother that wiped chins
and combed unruly hair
tucked in little shoulders
beneath the patterns of handmade quilts
showing her talent
for caring for other people
her gifts
shining in everything she touched
forgave you
even when you broke
her china
the pieces, trembling in your hands.

~

RNH

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

Courageous

When you desire most to simply
Lay your head down and grieve
At this moment, more than any other,
You must take courage
You must stand up
You must believe.

~

RNH

Perspective

with plenty of reasons to doubt
and falter
Look up
a myriad of chances await
for the darkness to only be
a temporary
veil
each window's
Perspective depends on your stance
and around every corner, the path
that will change you
contains you
in every story, your choice
to close your eyes
casting
your gaze to the ground
or to face the sky, open
Look up.

~

RNH

With Music

The leather, soft
On the corners, worn
Where pointed feet touched the floor
And left the springs
Joyfully
You remember
How our bodies rippled with the music
Lifting and singing
Our chorus to the room.

~

RNH

Logos

The Greek word for spirit
is also, wind.
We elude
and haunt ourselves,
the same.

~

RNH

Armor

I know you did not want to play
But my armor and I
Showed up anyway
And we fought and slew
Great dragons with conviction
And we spat and cursed
Wiping sweat with our sleeve
And the hardness of our eyes
Could not match the gray
Stone of our hearts
Til I lifted up my helmet
Asking, why am I destroying
What I love.

~

RNH

Threat

Thief, in top hat and glass
Monocle, turns
His silvery eye upon me and furrows
His furry brows and buttons
The consternation on his dark
Vest, the burgundy
The color of my purse.

~

RNH

Disappearing Act

and in your eulogy,
I did not falter, I did not
grasp at words and feelings
that I did not command
I did not throw the harnessing strands
about your figure
the illusion
that you would always be there
and the vanishing truth.

~

RNH

Pierced

She kept wishes under her pillow
Tucked them like teeth
Between case and sheet
Believed in the power of transformation
And prayed for the morning
To not curse the dream.

~

RNH