Poetry
Autumn
Splinter and Splice
"Live by the sun / Love by the moon"
A cheap rhyme I scribbled down
and tucked into the corner of my gown
Sentimentality sounds prettier
when she's dressed in satin and lace
She makes me struggle to write honestly
because I am ashamed of my humility
Distracted and dissected
I ask myself silly things
What are the sentiments for clouds?
Who is going to send in the clowns?
Why do they bury the father
who would greet me upon my rise?
And must they enshroud the mother
who would caress me as the day dies?
I know your sun will look different from mine
colder and older and blinding as snow
But I know he will bring hope to you
feed you and bless you and see your music through
I pray that your moon remains the same as mine
painted with stars like a porcelain doll
For she will bring comfort to you
and subdue my tears into weak morning dew
Published in Mythos Anthologie: Vol 1 (2022)
Slowly I watched as you fell out of your body
Your hair grew longer but never changed length
Your eyes always open but never shone blue
Arms and legs and hands and feet,
broken and lost to the abyss of memory
I caught each word as it tumbled from your disappearing lips
Like a ribbon wrapped around my fingers,
you were there when I wanted comfort
Like moonglow warming the night sky,
you where there when I wanted safety
What the body cannot hold,
the soul can only release
I imagined I knew you as the maple knows an autumn breeze
Preserving your laughter like wildflowers pressed in a book
Setting your kindness like lyrics woven into song
But as the trees lost their leaves,
your beauty crumbled at my feet
Published in Makarelle "Love is Love" Magazine (2022)
The Sand Dunes
The dream left abruptly that day
My eyes searching, hands reaching
You lay beside me still asleep
Your face dozing, body resting
“What if we ran away together?”
I ask with rash sincerity
“Tomorrow?”
You say with honest hilarity
“We’ll get in the car and go
The wind in our hair, the sun on our—"
You stop my cliches with your lips
Smile, and answer, “I know just the place”
Allemande
Close your eyes, it’s all here!”
You quietly shut the door
“Roll over, I’ll show you”
We lay blankets down on the floor
“Your sole is our home”
As you kiss my heart through my foot
“But your thigh is our highway,
Lie still. I’m tracing the route”
Your fingers connect my freckles
As you hitchhike across my hips
“A road trip over the rug?” I laugh.
“The destination is your lips!”
Corrente
Then, in a whisper, “Tell me about your dream.”
“I was lying on a beach
Watching giant cats swim on by
Sleek, like jaguars,
Their coats glistening beneath the sky
One swam ashore to greet me
With a sketch book in his teeth
I scratched the big cat’s belly
And flipped the pages at my feet
Messages from a marooned man and
Pleas for help filled the book
Somehow, I needed to rescue him
But there was no time, I just woke.”
Sarabande
“How did you expect to find him?”
A smile sneaking across your face
“You had no compass, no directions
You’d be lost forever in dream space!”
Tears well as my voice cracks
“Because I knew it was you.”
Salt drips down my cheeks
“Because I couldn’t lose you.”
“But sweetheart, I already fixed it!”
Your teasing scatters my fears
“I’ve already drawn you a map
And you can always find me here.”
Gigue
Your lips bless my forehead
Then my neck, then my chest
A prayer enclosed with four hands
Laid together upon my breast
“Follow my fingers across your freckles
Feel my breath warm your heart
Wrap my soul round your body
Then we’ll never be apart.”
Chaconne
Performed alongside J.S. Bach's Partita in D minor at Poets in Paisley December 2022