Across the Grain

It's cold when I can't have you where I want you when I need you.
And it's frightening to sit in silence as the moments trickle by.
Not knowing if or when I'll hear you next and why I can't
Rips me apart across the grain as I wait for something more.

Nonsense

With solid stout and sullen shreiks
The questions faking fairies feet
Seem pointless in the pounding pleats
That doubt the dances with deceit

It's mine to mince and mull and make.
For sloths and salts and soils sakes
I don't deny the dainty dates
That blunder while the broil breaks

But where do weasels wish to walk
And how can tenants taste their talk
It is the hermits haste to halt
That fastens us with forced default

Be clear in all your careful casings
Delicate with diamond day strings
Sterilize the stamping bee stings
Cheer for all the chided chasings

And when the dreary days are done
Be free in all the frost of fun
Take lazy naps in lasting love
And bake the blankets for the buzz

Fail to forget its final flaw
But raise the rungs and rub them raw
Its loss in lacquered labor laws
Too drab to drink the way he draws

Relax refined old razor reasons
I'm lost in all the lover leave-ins
Carry on with colder creatins
I belong to better beacons

Trying to Be

It's hard to see the rainbow
through the safety of the window
It's hard to see the sunshine
through the shelter of the trees
It's harder still to see
what changes should be made now
And it's hard to see what changes
will never belong to me

The girl behind the wall felt so much safer
Than the girl that broke them down to let you in
Easy to feed the dog under the table
And easy to call the best of men dear friends

I want to keep on fighting
for everything I've fought for
But I want to fight for everything
you and I share today
It's hard to tell the difference
between the sparkle of each star
Except for where across
the sky they find their place

Let's build the walls again with stronger bricks now
To protect each other from everything that hurts
Because it's easy to destroy what has been broken
Easier still to ruin perfectly whitened shirts

It's scary walking blindly
into the novelty of freedom
For fear you've turned again
and made the same mistakes
Wherewith we learn it wasn't
things that ever were the problem
But it was me I couldn't leave
it is me that hasn't changed

Show me how to love what still needs mending
Show me how to mend what can't be loved
As it is easy to throw out paper planes that won't fly
Or even decide to throw away the one that does

It's hard to see the lamp under
the brightness of the sunlight
It's hard to see the waves
under the fullness of the sea.
And harder still to see
what changes should be made now
And to decide which of these changes
will never belong to me

In The Wind

Reaching up with strength

Freckled with blossoms that rain

The branch rests firmly

In the wind

Gently knotted with care

Intertwined to carry laughter

The rope holds tightly

To the branch

Swaying across the sky

To the rhythm of powerful delight

The swing sings softly

To the rope

Gaining height with wide eyes

Gathering the courage to jump

The girl wiggles excitedly

In the swing

Shrouding her skin with chills

Playfully blowing hair across her face

The wind whispers daringly

To the girl

Reaching up with strength

Freckled with blossoms that rain

The girl jumps firmly

In the wind