Wednesday, March 21, 2012
There Will Be Flowers: The Reading
A Boy and a Girl
There’s a girl who wears her heart on her sleeve
She’s above the law
when she laughs just so at some secret thought
about a boy out there who glows in the dark
He says, “Go as you please.”
So the girl, she just smiles
Happiness stretched across her face
My Tree
My roots
Unknown
Grow carefully past stone
Through the core of the world
They reach to the other side of me
My trunk
My own
Stands gracefully, a home
Under the moon and the sun
Grateful for a shower or the promise
of one
My branches
They bend
Sway sweetly in the wind
Moving in every direction but down
To the sky they reach, ever further from the ground
All that I am are the three of these
I care not for my flowers, my sap, or my leaves
Though pretty and sweet and colorful
They are fleeting and nothing more
My roots, my trunk, my branches: My Tree
(The bird that perches there when she's not flying free)
Come sit on my bough
Come swing on my swing
You can live in my house
Your axe you may bring
Swing your axe all around
My tree will not be brought down
Swing your axe all around
My tree will not be brought down
When your strength has left you
When you've grown tired from the fight
You can rest up against me
Take leave of the night
When again you feel better
When you’re strong enough to see
You can sit down beside me
Take a moment to weep
Take as long as you need
Take as long as you need
Now bury your axe
Take as long as you need
Bury your axe
Bury your hate
Bury your habit
Bury your gait
Bury your skin
Bury your face
Bury your past
Bury your race
Bury your want
Bury your greed
Bury your doubt
Bury your heed
Deep down in the dirt leave all of these things
Wait out the winter, look toward the spring
Don't waste the summer in dread of the fall
Grow a tree of your own, a tree for us all
The Only Thing Standing Between Us Is My Passenger Side Door
I cried when I walked into my mother's house
I remembered my old apartment in downtown Little Rock
and knew it would never be as fine as it is on Friday night
I cried and said out loud,
"Why do I have to be crazy?"
I thought my bathing suit from Paris might make me feel better
So I put it on and sunbathed on the front porch
And I thought about you and how you told me you loved me
I smiled when I read it,
"Awe loves you."
I let myself be my kind of crazy unrelentingly
Counting Crows kept me company
Convincing me I was most certainly the queen
I pretended you could hear my thoughts,
"Are you the rain king?"
And out of the clear blue sky it started to rain
Suddenly I didn't feel crazy
Except for you
And you said,
"Slow it down. Take it easy baby."
Because I didn't know what that meant I slept for fifteen hours
And read all of our words over and over
Wishing I could edit the past
Because if I could I would have left it at,
"Awe loves you too."
Neopolitan
(Formerly Draw Me in the Key of Andy Warhol)
Your body
Designed with a purpose
Movements confessing instincts
You are alert but unaware
Unable to know beauty
So you come undone
Awakened by a sense of self
You search for purpose
A reactionary traveler
Always in step
Without regard
And the grass dies beneath your feet
Suddenly you hurt for the grass
Instead of yourself
You feel your own weight
Pressing upon the world
The world pressing upon you
And you change
Meteorites
How soft I must seem
When my off-white skin is mistaken
for a bruised canvas
a reflection of misguided passions from the night before
a night
a bruise
a softness
I cannot remember
But I cannot wear this skin
the way your mind sees it
Maybe I seemed cold
when I casually spoke of death
and ignored the face of pain
I avoided lonely hearts
And I regret that
But we are attached to a dying sun
Rising and falling in a sky so far away
We cannot mistake death
for a reason not to live
Now, words turn into lyrics
and music replaces a lone thought
and makes melodies
of sincere accidental progressions
Or your calculated decrescendos
The choir is singing our song
We are the only witness
Suicide Doctrine
I killed myself once
and can remember six hundred and fourteen bathrooms
counting the ones in my dreams
I have no idea what I look like
and often prefer the company of strangers
I recreate myself as often as I forget who I am
and try to go to places I have never been
I speak as though I have an audience
and believe suicide is melancholy
I abhor melancholy
Untitled
Every woman has a past
Every child has a future
Stay the course
Vote for change
Love Always
Forgive Often
Simple
I’m thinking about it
Catching up with old habits
Riding off into the sunset
I can’t remember things I once knew
Suddenly they are not hidden in the same places
But I love you more than ever
Always
I forget to breathe
Still
This is for me no matter how much I think of you and I think of you often
Maybe more than I should and I don’t care
I trust my thoughts
I trust you
Everything I feel or know
Comes back to you
The Fifth of July
The day before was a revival
Yes or No
Believers and Spirits
and the tortured eyes fallen in between
They sang for you, they sang for me
The night before was a battleground
Tooth and nail
Survivors and martyrs
and those who protected the old and the young
but we all fought, we all won
The moment before was silent
Heart and soul
Lullabies and sonnets filled the empty night and choirs were formed
Finally
I stood motionless
Watched the bullets pass by, each one closer than the next
I wondered if one could kill a man
Then the moment passed
Some watched the sun rise against the dark
Philosophers and artists
and the enjoyment of recognition
Tiny heartbeats and small fists
Today we are free
Self Portrait
When people ask what became of me
Answer quickly
Alcoholism and anorexia
When they say, but she was so pretty
Roll your eyes
When they want to know: why so harsh?
Say real self assuredly
Obviously you never met Kara Bibb
then
start in on some wild tangent about what's really wrong with the world. curse the breakdown of democracy and bad drivers and rapists and ex-lovers and haters and everyone that steals every piece of everything that is good and natural and beautiful and true in the world.
make excessively theatrical arm gestures and stand up out of your chair and with a clenched fist and your head raised to the sky say over and over and over again
why are you doing this to me
Why are you doing this to me
Why are You doing This to me
why are you doing this
and then
in mid sentence
look far and away
as if you just lost your train of thought
then pick right back up where you left off
to me
When the people look at you and say
what does this have to do with Kara Bibb
you'll just say
Exactly
Keeper
Within the confinements of my words
I find grace
and offer
grace
to you
As Fathers once offered gold and silk to royal men
for their one day fatherless daughters
I am glad for you and will not hurt for myself
Because I do believe
in far greater things than me
But not than you
I could not edit you out of my story
I tried to be alone
But I am yours
When you sleep in my bed
your head rests on my sleeve with my heart
Safe
Remember the time I told you I was consumed by thought
and want for peace
I surrender
To only the thought
Of you and me, forever
Love Revisited
She stands on tippy toes and renewed hope
Believes in one true love, about faces, and positive thoughts
Rarely admits to tearing her own skirts
or being delicate
She simply loves love
llulaby
romanticize
until your heart bursts like confetti into empty space
imagine wine is your lover
sip, taste, gulp
until your lips turn red and your head is dizzy
believe in magic
deny illusions
embrace your pain as a mother would
hold it close in your arms
whisper
it will all be okay
it will all be okay
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