Residents Of The Sky

The bricks are turned on
their sides and placed
in the sides of the mountains.
Placed like Tetris blocks
with colors like lime green
and grapefruit pink and
lemon amarillo.
They appear like piles of fruits placed strategically
inside the pyramid of the natural
Earth.
At night, they illuminate like
one million stars.

Resident Of The Sky

The Absence of Time

Let me have the absence of time if it is what makes the heart grow larger,

Let my yard grow completely wild, if there is grass on the other side,

Let me lose count, so as to be surprised at the number of chickens that hatch,

Let my house have no doors to prevent one from closing,

Let my dog sleep the same hours as I, so I can let it lie,

Give my cat nine lives so as not to impede her curiosity,

Let me make only recycled haste to reduce the waste,

Let my teeth need help holding, because they are so long and my hands in need of mittens because of my warm heart, worn on my sleeve,

Give me two left feet so neither can be wrong on which to step off,

Let it pour when it rains so water will always remain under the bridge,

Let me don clothes made of all nine yards,

Give me a new moon, that isn’t blue, so it isn’t that long until I see you,

Give me the absence of time.

Mutations

Dust bunnies now cloud my mind

like the cumulus shaped ones

we used to imagine

during the days we gazed up into the sky

Just like the porcelain rabbit figurines

which lined the China cabinets

in our formal dining room.

Had they hopped from their rabbit holes all the way from China?  I always wondered as a child.

When did it change from careless afternoons watching the clouds to greater responsibilities looming overhead?

At what age did it become a question about China’s historic Great Wall instead of a misnomer involving a tiny, fragile, hare?

Adulthood, you are a sneaky, unsuspecting tumor.

How on Earth did the clouds float away so fast and the cancer spread so quickly?

WORLD NEWS

ATTENTION, ATTENTION!!

I used to have this image of The Earth pinned to my vest collar and now it's GONE!!!!

...lost and into the abyss, never to be found again.

For a while, I was very, very sad.
I loooovved that button pinned to my blue vest.

But later, after I had time to think,
I realized The World had been lifted from my shoulders,
And I felt immediate relief.

Who's pinned and perched there, watching out for me now?
An Owl.

It's like you knew me

It's like you knew me.
Then one day, all of a sudden, you decided it was a new me.
And all that you thought you knew of me you had never really known.

You said you thought you knew me.
But you know that "ugly ass sweater" you think feels itchy and brand new?
To me, it's the softest and warmest piece of clothing I've ever known.
As if it has been passed down from generation to generation, to rightfully land in my very hands.

It's like you drew me.
Selected me at random out of a magician's hat.
Sketched the likes of me out on the back of a Waffle House receipt with the mechanical pencil you keep in your pearl snap shirt pocket.
The front side inked with our worth. Bottomless coffee prices and endless eggie wegs.
You smudged me in with bacon grease and Aunt Jemima.
A color combination of times as hard as dirt, with smells as sweet as syrup.

It's like you threw me.
Used me and used me and used me.
Fed me to the wolves, who chewed me up.
Took a couple of bites, even though they weren't hungry.
Decided I tasted as sweet and as pure as a slice of apple pie. Then swallowed me whole.

Giving Thanks to Ashtanga

A spark. Then light. A fresh breath of air.

A baby flame is given the glowing gift of life.

It is nourished by leaves and feeds on a breeze.

The growing flame glows to brilliant red and orange.

Its reaching roots glow deep blue.

Birthed through lightening from the skies, water begins to fall, deciding when to end the aged flame’s life.

Color Wheel of Life

Red dirt, thick as clay, embedded in my nails
And the blues of my eyes are clouded gray with tears

Water colored golden leaves change their minds to orange
Only to fall to the ground, to change their minds to brown

And my branches are brittle because you drank the last drop
And my branches are brittle because you drank the last drop

But the earth is still mud beneath my toes
The earth is still mud between my toes

Then all of a sudden, the ground starts to harden
My legs firmly planted like trunks of a tree

Tiny birds gather and hover and wonder about my limbs
Full of life, full of love, but incased in thick black bark
Incased in thick black bark