Once believed
that thought
held magic
that God decides –
worth and merit
in limbo
Such folly –
intent and sweat
beget progress –
Dreams manifest
when step by step
goals take charge
and God,
on the sidelines
applauds.
(Image my own)
Once believed
that thought
held magic
that God decides –
worth and merit
in limbo
Such folly –
intent and sweat
beget progress –
Dreams manifest
when step by step
goals take charge
and God,
on the sidelines
applauds.
(Image my own)
Severity of disease
defines degree of marginalization
Who will enter the darkness;
rub shoulders with despair?
Disability is entrancing
but doesn’t invite engagement
We are mythical creatures,
those of us whom fate has chosen
Passage aborted, movement
encumbered, we fantasize
about normalcy –
to be forgiven, just a day
That we might shatter
our barricades, and bound
carefree into the ocean waves –
like the mermaids that we are.
(Image my own, aided by AI)
Time hinders
ability,
dictates new
cautions…
It doesn’t mean
we give up;
we just store
possibility
in tucked away
spaces –
as reminders
(Reminders first appeared here August 2018. Image my own)
3:33 AM
Startled awake
The answer
there, on the brink
Of course I lose it
rising to answer another call
Oh, how it taunts
Try to recapture the moment
find the right twist of body
as if I’m a radio tuner
signal lost
And what answer would that be, anyway?
Now fully awake, pondering questions –
only one applies
This newly formed fear
I’ve dared not voice it –
it cuts deep
Is there an answer
and if so, do I want to hear it?
I fall back to sleep
awake hours later
mind blissfully empty.
(Image my own)
Two decades before the fall
I dreamt of that white house
with black shutters,
entered the dimness
and saw myself –
withered, a straw body
Could I have altered the course
gathered that mummified self
in my arms, breathed new passion
into old bones, stopped
the onslaught of night
of cells freezing
passionless
No.
I walked in oblivion
seduced by false trickery
dim-witted in the fading light
cold, aloof, unresponsive
warnings be damned
Two decades later,
body inert, mind bereft
of hope – I dreamt
of a younger self
so intent on life
that she passed me by.
Rainbows and wishes
wings we give daughters
Little girl dreams destined
to hit walls – shortsighted
these laws of oppression –
for sweetness of youth
does not equate with folly
Women are warriors,
our rage underestimated.
(Tuesdays I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own)
As night falls, the sun
serenades my soul –
Beauty wraps my heart
in somnolent ecstacy
paints my mood
with shades of love
reality out of focus –
imagination floats, full sail
into a dreamy mist,
delightful course,
a symphony of hues
coaxing welcome slumber.
A simple shoebox, repurposed
with plastered images of dreams –
paper affirmations of aspirations –
shelved and forgotten, its contents
snapshots, faded and torn, remnants
of another time, a different future –
captured when potential was prime
and possibility untainted by illness
This one was retirement – a supposed
celebration – but note how the colour
has drained the cracks obliterating
pride of accomplishment; and notice
how this one crumbles to the touch –
the fragments dissipating even as
my life has dissipated, the image
lost before memory resurfaces, so
much loss when circumstance dictates
direction, overpowers will, and plans
like snowflakes, vanish in the heat
of reality – pain and insult burning
But wait…this one looks promising –
the edges only slightly torn, the image
discernible – could it be that there is
hope yet – a future author I might be?
That’s the thing about times to come,
we fill them with imaginings, and pray,
our hope, like balloons set free in a sea
of unforeseen challenges, and seldom
does the end result reflect projected
plotting, and yet, there is power in
the dreaming, and so I’ll replace the old
with new photographs to store away.
(This is a rerun of a rerun. Still resonates. Image my own)
What is this ocean,
this vastness?
Blue upon blue
tiny crisp white sails
the only demarcation
between sky and water
infinite flow
a lulling swell
and I as witness
Docked
waiting
wondering
What is this ocean
that calls to me?
(Image my own)