Hallway to Nowhere

Category: poems

  • All We Can Do (Poem)

    because the tidal overwhelm of war remains,

    and women cry until they have no voice

    and orphaned children die in cratered streets

    and everywhere men kill other men because they can.

    I sit with my back straight and become glass.

    all the grief of the world washes through me

    and through you, a darkened ink of light.

    we breathe. all we can do.

    because the common squabble of life constantly rains,

    and this one accuses that one over something

    and words become harsh here there everywhere

    and bitterness becomes ordinary coin.

    I carry kindness in my pockets to give away

    as do you, little bits of good to see us through the day.

    we smile. all we can do.

    we all do what we can. that is all we can do.

  • Tanse’eryth (The Language Of Trees) (Poem)

    because the language they taught me

    was not enough, a paltry thing used only by them

    and I wanted to talk with trees, I made my own

    words reached into the sky, not grasping like hands

    but open like branches, with silences so that birds could alight

    and not be scared and so share their stories

    though most thought me solitary even friendless

    I laughed at this, being only alone

    when I had to go out among them, and I felt pity

    for all they could not hear

  • The Bayou (Poem)

    I am not there will never be again

    yet know how the water can be so dark so still

    the trees leaning over the banks from either side

    an arched leaf canopy to block the sky

    a refuge for those weary and unable

    to live up to the pressure of a summer day

    the constant expectation of carefree childhood

    placed even on me

    who always always knew that a lie

  • Visiting Artists As A Child (Poem)

    before I knew paintings were to be seen only with your eyes

    because artists kindly understood different ways

    I would walk to their work with outstretched arms

    run my hands across the surface to find how it appeared

    green felt different from orange or red or blue

    yellow was so distinct I would tell the painters

    it smelled like metal in the hot summer

    a few would nod and sit on the ground beside me

    they knew the world was like this, all texturecolorsoundscent

    and we could talk

  • I Have Never Been A Girl (Poem)

    we fought a silent war in a battlefield that changed

    sometimes clothing, sometimes names, sometimes behavior

    the ground remained the same

    she said I was a girl though disdained me for a daughter

    I knew I was not, had always known, refused to back down

    that was really what she hated, that I would not be quiet

    her campaign became scorched earth

    since she could not win, she would simply destroy

    to prove herself right, she threw me to harm

    a girl can have horrible things done by horrible boys

    a girl can have terrible things done by terrible men

    still I talked and said what they did, what they were allowed to do

    a girl can be told that she makes things up and worse

    a girl can be told that everything was her own fault

    I was not the girl she tried to make me become

    I walked away after all they did and all she said

    I found my own place in the world

    they/their/them

  • The Refuge Of Ordinary Acts (Poem)

    grief again again and again

    a poet killed, a writer imprisoned

    a boy in hunger, a girl in flight

    missiles through the sky, bombs beneath the earth

    the world wailing and tears the only language

    then

    small kindnesses stave the overwhelm of despair

    a fallen jacket returned, unnoticed on the cafe floor

    a brief smile shared, passed along on the back street

    a local sign righted, toppled by the afternoon wind

    a barking dog petted, uncaring of consequence

    such acts of connection reminders, allowing all to breathe

    love heals, and in many forms

  • Fancy Clothing (Poem)

    he came dressed in knowledge

    with offers to drape well-being around me,

    a scarved testimony to his infinite powers

    eventually I saw him in different garb,

    the endless flow of information worn thin

    though never transparent

    when you know everything about everything

    how can you let people see you

    bend under the weight of such heavy self-regard

    the burden of always being right

    I’m happy scrubbing dishes and cleaning the floor

  • One Hour (Poem)

    it did not go well, this thing

    often it does, more often than not

    light shines through the dusty windowpane

    motes briefly illuminating the air

    distant sirens don’t matter, until one time they do

    and all has crashed down

    not well, not well at all

    even though the roadside is lined with purple violets

  • Usual Dreck (Poem)

    no forgiveness, and why would I ask?

    the wind is cold, though spring approaches

    offerings of blue-skied days and false warmth

    I am not deceived, old enough to know nature’s fickle promise

    my misdeeds mine and acknowledged

    holes in walls, friendships killed by unkind word

    scrapes on floorboards, aspirations felled by glaring fault

    dust on ceilings, dreams given the lie by lazy inaction

    all of these I have done and will live accordingly

    I stand in the doorway and listen to the rumble of the train

    unable to remember how long I’ve lived

  • The Thief (Poem)

    I cannot climb a telephone pole

    to take thick green glass insulators

    be a thief of conversations not my own

    purely because the color caught my magpie gaze

    she did this far too frequently and so

    stern-faced men in dark official suits

    knocked on our red door to tell her to stop

    she just smiled at them and said of course

    I knew she was not sorry because she laughed

    and threw one of the domes at the door

    when I would visit after I escaped

    I would see the gash in the blood-like paint

    a mocking reminder of her power to flaunt any rule

    he never repaired it, and I wondered

    if sometimes she scared him too