You Are Candlelight My Yellow Rose Every Song I'll Ever Compose We Are Elegance And Flowing Words The

A drop of vanilla escapes The glass vial; It lingers, it lingers, It lingers on the table Before it breaks.

It seeps slowly, then Suddenly into the grooves, Spreading vanilla into The pores of the wood.

Vanilla infuses with The table, into a tiny Stain, into a small Splotch of warmth And subtle hospitality.

The red-winged blackbird Clings to the cattail It perches on, Calling out in that Short, piercing chirp

They sway in the Gentle breeze together Like one entity

I wonder how the cattail Feels, if it likes Having talons Wrapped around its stem, To be joined in such a way.

Ink spills across the page Quickly, compose One painting, one color From crimson to rose

You scribble your passion Inside the hues In galaxies, in thought Declaring your views

So drench the paper Stain it with art Brush strokes of the mind You're a writer at heart

I stand with my feet In the water Letting the icy waves Bury my feet in the sand Erasing my footprints So I had never Walked here

The water that touches me Touches you It glides along your ankles And the tide rushes over us Though we stand In different oceans

When I get home My cat looks at me The same way she did Back then Only the fur on her chin Is gray now Her eyes are watery

There's a tap on my shoulder I know it's you I look behind me And all I see is the door I turn the lock Turn off the front light Going to bed without you

You're in between the sheets Your blankets are green Mine are brown Together we must be Like the earth That connects us

The salt of the sea Is on my skin I think that you can smell it That with my eyes closed Your arms around me Whispering Take me back there

My cat settles herself In the bend of my knees I wonder if she remembers you As she yawns loudly Falling asleep soundly Just as I do

I speak to you inside my mind My inner world a sanctuary A holy place just for myself I would have you sit here with me

Watch the water as it flows My river of thoughts and words Walk with me through wet grass Full of insects and hunting birds

Do you feel safe here with me? There's a soft and misty glow In the sunrise of my imagination I hope you feel at home

I am not embarrassed or afraid I am messy and flawed and bare In a open field of chamomile flowers I am myself with you and that's rare

Maybe I laugh a little too much Like a part of me is ashamed But I opened this world to you Our fears laid out to be reclaimed

I feel you move inside my head Move me with all that you are You're as real as anything we feel As the light from a newborn star

I don't think of you I don't look for you Blink, you're here Blink, you're gone

I walk through my day I go about life Step, you appear Step, you fade

I curl up in bed I sleep and don't Dream Inhale, I breathe you Exhale, I let go

We speak in tongues The wicked we Me and my anxieties

Losing peace And lost to sleep No sleep tonight for me

My words are jumbled Mumbled sounds Can you find them In the lost and found?

Insane is pain In painful times These chains aren't yours But mine

I watch the spider Weaving fresh webbing Because spiders don't Have five day forecasts This spider doesn't know How soon it will rain That all its hard work Will have been in vain

The wolf spider Accepts the advances Of her strongest suitor Knowing as she snatches And savors her final meal Soon her plump body Will feed her children Dozens of her a copy

I watch the spiders My eight legged allies I see them hatch Love them living here Knowing in a year Or much sooner I will Find them delicately Crumpled on the ground Lifeless and so still

To think they were not together That they were never lead To merging paths To hold each other on nights So quiet and clear

To think they were not together In the warmest of hours The most joyous of holidays Longing fading still

That they were not together Is such a vast and endless void Their absence so tangible And thick as the air In the greenest stormy sky

To think they held hands But not each other's That they kissed lips That were not their own And called it a life

I am just the winter air Freezing a downy bed I'm a thousand snowflake pairs Crushed beneath a sled

Sometimes I'm a bitter chill That nips atop a balding hill I am more than winter air I'm dark days ahead