poetry

triggers

triggers

the triggering subject:
the proximal cause
setting your pencil moving
putting words in your mouth
and a bee in your bonnet

the generated subject:
the image that emerges from the ache
the harm that won’t be undone
the pain that makes it all personal
the meaning to your being here now
with something to say
and a need to be heard

let me be brave enough
to line up all these daily triggers
sharp and dangerous as daggers
all the goings-on that pierce my consciousness
and follow each one a step further
uncovering the wound each tears wider
until my fingers can probe it
pack it with a poultice of runes
then hold my warm hand over it
til it heals well

poetry

sitting still

sitting still

sitting with the pain of the world
I stroke Syd’s flipper
pat his back
listen
while the ocean pours out of him

it doesn’t matter so much
where our brokenness lies
where the blows came from
how they were dealt

we most need
to sit with each other’s pain
bear witness to
the immense hurt
we sometimes cannot even name
and recollect
the strong resilient beings we are
able to knit our fractured selves
back together
sometimes with even
more abiding bonds
if only we can remove
our breastplates first
and be vulnerable
together

poetry

missing out

missing out

he tells me to embrace
the joy of missing out
and I can’t even say
why those words
bring such a wave of pain

sometimes the body knows
what the mind censors

poetry

salve

salve

my body
holds onto
pain

learns a
pattern
remembers

years after
injury
the same muscles
ache
same acid
galls

o my flesh
if only
I could let go
of little
traumas
pour light into
wounds
and heal