Poetry
Merry-Go-Round
Step right up, step right
up to the carousel of jagged human
choice. The twirling amalgamation of hearts
jumps with the smoothness of a held breath--
the winner wearing a calculated crown
of need, coated in glittering chipset. Twisted
into mute circus animals, plastic eyes rubbed
by too many fingers, the other riders
wonder at how a carousel chooses
winners at all.
Manifest Destiny
Advancement is an ebb and flow,
swirling tides traveling to unexpected
lands. A bottle destined for
warm beaches with crystal sand sits
upon a frozen coast, chipped with each
roaring wave.
The first human who dreamed of
kicking the red crust of another world
existed in one where there was
no right-click. Does this deep water guide
us towards Elysium or Tartarus?
Photo Album
Small fingers trace at the
jaw too curved to be the squared
one her mom told her
she got from grandma. The woman there
has lips parted to show too-white teeth nestled
in a perfect crescent. The child
stares at the smoothed edges of a smile,
follows with her fingers
a mouth that is not a mouth, and imagines
the words
I love you.
Self-Doubt
The cave is only fearsome when there
is no path home. On summer nights with the warm
earth calling your name, you live for
flickering firelight on shadowed walls. This is the
moment to see all you have been without fear
of judgment from the puppet show. It is
desperation that morphs these playful actors
into demons, the chill from winter winds
into a maw of mistakes and icy jaws. In those
frigid days remember summer, remember
when the light was a dance, remember that it
is outside that plagues you, not the
firelight.
The Colonists
Are the violet-red
sunsets on Mars gorgeous
now? Or must we first lay on blankets,
drunk on cactus and mushrooms while
watching the sky with our alien bones,
eyes trained on the flickering horizon? Now,
on that dust-strewn seed, sleeps
an ancient, ever-churning potential-- and we
greedy dreamers, those who will eat
what they imagine loving,
look up.
