8/11/2015

wake up. so you've been slugged
low harsh and unfairly
so the entire world looks

like tinder and your head
vibrates.

rest here. let  the unkind words
the hammer-blow judgment

fall away. it seems like the earth
cannot hold it all, I know, and the

stars are too far away to touch.
so it goes. even the trees

who once held you aloft
like old acrobats cannot

even whisper. some things
weigh this much. there are places
where birds seem not to exist.

do not take the usual paths:
to lie down before it is 

to crush your soul like a wad of tinfoil
to stand up before it is to become
someone's self-fulfilling prophecy

there is a wind in the pines somewhere

a brook remembers your name.
listen to these voices until

you recall on what shelf
you left the portrait of someone
who truly loved you.

take down that face. hold it before
you. spread it like putty until

it fits the horizon.