Night Games

Cicadas buzz

One voice
Entering the silence
Cutting through
The honey thick air
Joined by another
Now two
Raising their voices
To the drowsing twilight
To the heat warped twilight
Calling the stars from their beds beyond the horizon.
A growing chorus of voices
Serenating waking fireflies
Taking flight
From the slowly growing stalks
Standing tall 
as they grow heavy with milk sweet corn
a cacophony
calling down the night
making room
for flashlight beams

olly-olly-oxen-free

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, a young girl sat up high

In a tower of her own making

Built on a foundation of heartbreak

Precariously standing tall

Praying for stability

Held together with the hopes and dreams 

of the life she wants

 

She sits in the window

The patchwork world spread at her feet

The divots

The peaks

The scars of all the lives lived on the surface

 

Her tower on the hill separates her

Puts her high above the world

Clouds and birds passing the windows she gazes from

Nothing to break the strings connecting her to the earth

Roots digging deep into the black dirt of her homeplace

 

But her dreams fuel her fire

A yearning for something beyond the stone structure that’s built her

A love for every cracked stone filled with hope for the future

Ribcage Drummer

My heart doesn’t understand the love my ribcage has for it.

A cage of flexible protection

Bending so my heart doesn’t break

Offering structure to the fluidity of my bloodwork

Strength and scaffolding

Expansion and boundaries

 

My heart, constantly pounding.

Beating against my framework.

Always fighting to get out.

To jump from my chest. 

To prove to the world its strength.

To prove that it’s a fighter

 

Clawing artery and valve

For each and every inch of love and passion.

Roots

I’ve spent so many years fighting them

Fighting their life-giving pull

Fighting each new shoot

Each new line of life adding strength and security

 

I’ve spent so many years searching for them

The roots that were severed

Cut off by new opportunities

Too perfect to pass on

Too necessary for continued growth

Replanted with more room for love

Replanted, but still severed and disorienting

 

I’ve been fighting

I’ve been yearning

I’ve been trying so hard

No matter what reality is.

Lean In

 

Will you map my body onto yours?

Cause I’ve seen these contours before

Will you lay your body next to mine?

I swear we’ll get it right this time

 

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean into?

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean in...

 

Will you trust me with your hidden hollows?

Share your sun streaked peaks?

While I explore the nuance of your body

and you’re melting into me

 

We’ve got the time to find our way

Minutes, seconds, hours, and days

So hide the clocks and shut the shades

While the world just fades away

 

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean into?

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean in...

Will you trust me with your hidden hollows?

Share your sun streaked peaks?

While I explore the nuance of your body

and you’re melting into me

 

Will you trust me with your hidden hollows?

Share your sun streaked peaks?

While I explore the nuance of your body

and you’re melting into me

 

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean into?

Mmmmmmmmm Is this enough to lean in....to me and you?

--Co-written by Aiden Michael and Kae Marie