Ups and Downs
Upside
I am a feather; made of air itself
I walk on tiptoes and we move together like the breeze
Downside
Now you see me, now you don’t
And I tumble helplessly in the drag of your wake
Upside
Come and melt together with me
Trading breaths for sighs and my skin on your teeth
Downside
“I want you,” I hear myself slur
As your guarded heart searches for me in the dark
Upside
I’m there and you’re always there
Your head on my chest and my head is swimming
Downside
I’m nowhere and you’re everywhere
Except where I am and I worry worry worry away
Upside
You - grand pause- yes, all of it
The smile that makes my heartbeat change meter
Downside
The music is not for me alone
And my heart hasn’t been in 4/4 time since we met
Upside
I can see the summit from here
I’m tired of the climb but oh just imagine the view
Downside
The slope is suddenly too steep
Everything’s sliding down everything everything
A dancer has the unique task of being
an artist, and the art itself.
Each sweeping movement of the arm or leg
is a brushstroke across the canvas.
Feet leap and land, singing with the ground
in their own percussive song.
Their muscles tell stories under their skin,
the words both sweet and profound.
They are the mute actors, emotion spilling
wordlessly from their eyes.
How am I supposed to breathe when
every gasp is a dance?
Every rise and fall of your shoulders and
every heave of your chest,
Every unseen heartbeat is choreographed
to leave me breathless.
If love is a dance, we are the dancers;
the artists and the art itself.
Change.
When a phoenix dies,
is it reborn the same bird,
or someone brand new?
Please, go.
You cloud my skies and put the sun in my eyes.
If I’m ever going to learn to walk on these feet,
I can’t keep tripping over you.
I promise,
when you come back, I wont be the same bird.
I will have molted these old yellow feathers and
I won’t be singing your song.
Morning.
The birds are awake,
why aren’t you? It’s time to sing
and watch the sunrise.
I want to be the
one you remember, and the
one you come home to.
My life rises and falls
with your sleeping chest;
Enough wind to knock me over
in a single breath.
Fragment 3
I wanted to stay there forever,
Right there in that one moment,
Where every heart beat at once
And I was surrounded in all the
Familiar sounds of being in love
With you.
Because I know,
now that it’s gone,
It will never be back again.
Fragment 2
“Who are you?”
He flinched and looked back at me, wounded.
“A memory.”
I tried to recall, my mind reeling backwards like rewinding a tape.
Flashback. A moment frozen in time. Buried emotions. Pieces missing.
But the further back I went, the softer the edges, the more faded the colors.
The film is damaged.
I shook my head.
“A ghost.”
Fragment 1
He asked me if I was okay, and my voice wavered under the gross falsity of my reply.
While I choked out a “yes”, my heart retched and every inch of me was coated in “no”.
