If it were a war of bullets Your bodies would suffice But ideas Do not idly die While they pierce hearts and minds Bodies born to embrace An unholy notion Ask yourself How does this end? Why would anybody choose surrender? Whether it is war or life For love

I was bound to travel down This path I can’t defy Not knowing right from left behind For my unseeing eyes Its end, a moral mystery And I lent scales besides The birches’ tears So green with wear Relate my last disguise Yet beat defeat In callings found I undulate And go to ground

I have spent lifetimes Knocking on doors To be met on porches Most graciously Not quite welcomed home While learning to greet Each address in its tongue Trespassing deceits To threshold myself In exile

An unplanned jaunt Inspired by art That spoke colour To my dusk-covered heart Beckoned to a crescent coast Arced like an embrace Both warm and gray In April Shouldered on the rocking strand In this grand motherland I huddled ‘gainst the restless wind Seeking words her waves hushed Her listening wisdom, unrushed A deep ocean of meaning Slowly sweeping To recover amethyst memories Fluid and fluently Drawing closer To speak seasons to my solitude Until the sky was hued By her lavender comfort And the song of stars

Milkweed: The only proof I need Rebirth believes in poison Its bitter taste A gift you learn to survive To testify To those who learn too late Not to swallow Your alien affection This sole protection For one who cocoons to die For one who falls to rise In flamed and sooted hues In wings, not words Yet muse To monarchs without crowns Alit on silence now Still burning with memory Of where I once sought peace My kingdom come Thy will be done Oh, milkweed!

God killer Kept unaware Shielded from truth And your own reflection Braced against perfection As fragile as innocence To become something more In the eyes of my love Stealing time Speaking faith To defend The integrity of grace My greatest joy Become your deepest sorrow A heart broke open To the wonder of a world Worth saving Alone

We saw the sun together Yet I could not feel it My heart closed To the warmth my eyes knew A bud after bloom Set to seed A weed With promises not ready to be kept Made to flurry from your whispered wish False winter solstice Reborn a thousand times Face-blind Unable to recognize Your radiant memory in anything Save this sense That the south Bids me blush When it grows bright

She is my second language Yet he becomes my third When fighting for words Beyond her ken In his confession Of an instinct for grief Lacking synonyms Dismissing her youth As gardener in war Ancient warrior Defending truth That grows as he dies The depth in his eyes The language of this brother tongue A rose among thorns So sparse and silent The irises of his garden Long-tended Antonym for violence

Cry, mercy For you do not arrive in name But in disguise Never recognized For who you are Though serving yourself wholly In tears To seem weak While hiding the strength To disarm Our long-besieged sons Let them take you into their hearts That you might open their gates to surrender And destroy Any notion They were ever alone