Poem Series: 1999

Three poems written in 1999 for dear friends at a time when no amount of deep and heady conversation could persuade them from a path they had to experience for themselves.


Slow Suffocation of the Heart

How thick a constitution and
How sharp a resolution

But your childish thoughts mislead you
And your selfless vows concede you

To the thorns of discontent
And dark alleys of regret that

Pierce as deep as marrow
And meander through your veins.

Your mind will not bend to face the vine
Or the towers built on either side

Rather you carry there upon your back
The seedlings of your sorrow

To plant the vines and
Build the hopeless towers of tomorrow.

Color Palette

How many colors
To make your palette true
They are but the beginning
The tool and not the rule
Primary from birth
The colors of your twinkle in the eye
Years have added to the first
The colors of your life

The painting now is brown and gray
Bright hues that mix and play too much
Are obscured
And can not stay that way
but signal by their disarray
the time to change the canvas.


Lost Girl

How can I reach deep into your brain
To draw out your reason, remind you?
How can I dig down into your chest
And quiet the lust that misguides you?
How can I show you the truth you once knew?
How can I stear you from love's pain, his lure?
How can I watch you return to him when
In the arms of the others he denied you?

How can you trust and believe in him now?
How can you give him the easy way out?
You say you'll teach him a lesson, oh yes and it is,
A rose on your car, a few tears and a kiss
Make up for humiliation, betrayal and loss,
The lies that he told; the respect that it cost.

Don't you know your own worth.
Can't you see what he is?
My sweet girl, guard your heart
And stop kneeling to his.