Sunrise Sustenance

Woke up sniffing lines for breakfast
Punctuation peppered
Sipping sugared simile
Heady high notes
Words bleed through nasal membranes
Straight to bloodstream
No chaser

(c) Journey by Fire 2015

Reflections

Balanced on slippery porcelain ledge
She takes in the image

Almond eyes like her mama
and mama's mama before
Each scar a separate saga
She inventories her life
in a single glance

Reluctant to confront
the judgement of decades
Reluctant to confront
truth in the looking glass

(c) Journey by Fire 2013

Cosmic Cycles

cosmic cycles
unbroken
human fallibility
replayed
like deeply scratched vinyl
or a dj's favorite sample

looped from one generation
to the next
between the years
a lost respect
3rd age turned youth
harsh lessons learned forgotten
and re-learned

cosmic cycles
circle back again
ageless wisdom
falls prey to primacy of the now

universal outlet
in bruised fruit
flowers of pain
deathly waters
borderline of beauty
frontier between breath and beyond

cosmic cycles
unbroken
fuel a distant forever

(c) Journey by Fire 2013

I am...**

I am
   unchained optimistic
I wonder
   which questions fit the answers given
I hear
   merfolks beckon with sweet siren song
I see
   footprints of possibility
I want
   promise upheld

I am
   unchained optimistic
I pretend
   their thoughts matter more than my own
I feel
   blessed and strive to bless others
I touch
   divinity like water in cupped fingers
I worry
   that my worries will insult Creation
I cry
   unbidden fear for our children and theirs

I am
   unchained optimistic
I understand
   nothing but seek overstanding
I say
   words have power beyond comprehension
I dream
   technicolor utopia
I try
   living wisdom to make my mothers proud
I hope
   for justice, connection, beauty, legacy

I am
   unchained optimistic


**in response to DC Poetry Project - Half-and-Half writer's workshop prompt**

(c) Journey by Fire 2013