we're Forever dodging icicles
the big ones come
crashing down
sometimes 10
at a time.
the small ones too
they speed
to slice
my neck
i guess
but i'll keep dancing
and dodging and
twirling to keep
my whirling world
from unfurling
for now
I wrote this after watching my brother's last video message before he committed suicide. He talked into his dashcam for 45 minutes as he drove out to a trailhead in the mountains. He was dealing with a lot of different things all at once and had been for a very long time. I see and saw so much of my challenges in his life and unfortunately presented a version of myself to him that appeared to handle my struggles much better than I actually did. I hope I can be more honest in my writing and poems so that other people can see that real life shit is hard and they're not the only one struggling to make it work.
Coyote, i
saw you through
the trees today,
framed by lovely
leaves; a way
of being born
in living ray
assay assay a-
breathing bounty
god of May
i am not sorry
you_startled
me_startled
_We
This poem was born of a chance encounter with a coyote in the woods near my home. I have had multiple run-ins with this coyote, but this time was particularly peaceful. I had spent about 30 minutes sitting on a rock on a hillside off the beaten trail and ol' coyote wandered my way. I didn't hear him approach and all of a sudden he was perhaps 15 feet away through the underbrush. The low lying, thorny bushes that separated us were thick and lush and while he didn't tarry he did seem to acknowledge that we could both enjoy the midday, spring sun together (briefly).
she drapes across his
soulscape like the snow
silent; settling
softening the sharp
and jaded bough to
accentuate a rock
here and
a crevasse there
while light,
flurries tease,
the remainder
I wandered through the snow and was struck by how nicely it had fallen upon the woods. I didn't grow up with snow so every time it sticks around me I try to spend some time in it. I'm fascinated by how snow feels like a character or an opinion that the world assumes every once in a while. The same place, the same path, but with an attitude that expresses something completely different than even just the hour before. I've noticed that people do this with each other too. We bring out and highlight and mute and soften and harden all these different aspects of each other. Sometimes it's on purpose, sometimes it's not, but it's always happening.