My mind is a universe Of conscious chemicals Audacious audience To the reverberations of genesis Sentience sent To serve as witness To magnificence Made of its maker The conscious objector To any other reality My thoughts are confessions Of its reactive ruckus And I, willful witness To the symptoms of this physiology Stellar nursery rhymes meant To voice discontent With tyranny Made of their maker Conscientious objectors To this reality

You are what you eat: Chicken. Nuts. Bananas. A diet for dying, one night at a time. You are the five people you spend the most time with: Them. Me. Us. We. Divine. A company for confessing, one hour at a time. You think, therefore you are: Not. Overwhelming. Your shame in shortcoming, one moment at a time. One bite at a time. One listener at a time. One thought at a time. Eat. Confess. Think. Who were you before?

I’m sure if god listens He knows her voice Has heard it stationed ‘cross The manyfold map of miracles Left here on earth A constellation that called her name In despairing hours Only to be answered elsewhere By this faithless imposter Namesake I’m sure if god listens He has heard in my vows of silence Her familiar insistence To go it alone And yet if I listen I still hear her calling In the church of humanity She has left behind Her absence, an answer To announce to our father “I’m home”

Before you I knew All light fell from heaven So it came as no surprise When luminous love Dove enchanted Landed Unsnowing The blanket of feathered white That held this heart down Revealing fears as mysteries Lifting these silent histories In starry, starry flight My mind recalling pieces Of the wonder I’d once called Home

The elephant in the room Never forgot What was kept in her trunk Packed up terms of endearment The keepsakes of love Grown tusky with time Far from slaughter without Their unheard ivory Now humming In a voice so low Only she could feel it Lift the corners of her mouth

My mind cowered Before this eldritch soul Blinded with wet unknowing Running and falling For any escape From its own reflection Yet depth, a terror Your heart accepted, Opened the wandering way To the good earth below A heroic home Where the patter of fear and feeling Could nourish the ephemerals Blooming beneath My dread of forever To glow closer To what I now name Courage

Beyond death, I looked back with regret, Seeing my past Had been my constant residence; My ever-present, A neglected homestead, Verdant with untended possibilities … Only to startle, Realizing Death had not changed me.

When the night ocean retreated Five Islands waited In the sun On carmine clay That late June day When bare feet churned Tide-turned stones On the strand They marked my path Far from others When an eagle soared To circle, with my silent heart, The reconnected isles Floating higher Til we were both lost From view I knew why The heavens smiled

I dreamt I saw you once more Sunburnt Tears rimming your eyes Saying, “Sorry…” As we turned to watch on film A story I’d seen you in before But could not recall And when I turned to ask Your name You were gone