"on grief" will be published in Z Publishing's upcoming poetry anthology, "Colorado's Best Emerging Poets."

on grief

i did not know
that my mouth could twist like this
or that i could have so many
shed and unshed tears
or that my hands, fingers curling
would try to catch your flying soul as it departed
or that my world
in trembling spiderweb resonance
could have the space where you belonged
so cleanly cut
into a space
where you are not

to sleep, perchance

they stand and stare in sudden startled fascination
as the rising sun burns dreams into existence
and speaks of love in sunbeam, sea-salt language
that swells with breath and moves like storm-tossed trees
bearing windfall fruit:

they sink to ground and open up the seeds,
and slit the seed-coat to reveal weightless wings
which starve for flight, and shy away from steel
and seek to redefine the misbegotten, ill-fledged things
and break the heat-forged fury—

they soar through cloud and claim their fears, defiant
and burn like wild suns to scorch the maw of spite—

my love! see these dreamers and children alike
whose soul-tossed strident stars
in face of scorn
sang symphonies
instead.