Author: redrivergirl

Words
iv.

Daily I fall in love with words
with their heteronyms, antonyms, silent letters
WIND BOW STAND KNOW
and sources of origin.
I love how they fill up my ears
and slide into my eyes
jumping at me from pages
and street signs.
I feel their meaning
roughened by accents softened with whispers
slide over me.
Their double entendres
suggesting so…
fumbling and stuttering so sweetly
that I am left speechless, waiting.
Daily I fall in love with words
with their native languages.
They tell secrets in the paper
and I want them.
I know them.
They slip into history menus sermons songs–
their length long and short.

They have students or lovers or tweeters
or all.
They are anciently worldly–
they know how civilizations speak.
Their careful arrangements form paragraphs
and clauses.
Daily I fall in love with words.
They are conveyors of dreams.
But they never remain in vacuum
as they sustain explain rearrange.

Words
iii.

listening to

the full, full, full, so full of you, the
drowning out of words of you, the
heavy-to-the-top of you, the steel-on-
steel-on-wheels of you, the
rusty clang, clang,
clank of you, the shaking air and
ground of you, the heat-till-red-hot
sound of you, the cars and crates and
squeaks and weight and chains and pops
and bangs and bright white
end-of-movie space

that follows
in your place.

Words
ii.

mince meaning.
dilute truth.
mix metaphor.
crystallize opinion.
dice situation.
dissolve resolution.
whisk contention.
seal history.
infuse hearsay.
drizzle dread.
blacken reputation.
extract tact.
spread rumor.
chill passion.
blend reality.
coddle apathy.
whip submission.
combine contempt.
beat opposition.
rinse wisdom.
roast adversity.
blend hypocrisy.
strain conversation.
crush choice.
squeeze voices.
toast gossip.
peel layers.
dredge past.
glaze facts.
reduce tolerance.
skim tears.
garnish taste.

bake.

eat the words
you serve.

Words.
i.

hidden.
between the lines.
no words.

When
v.

When the weekend’s here
we party.

When
iv.

because the knot is not
the sailor,
because the nose
is not the clown.
because belief
may not believe
the author is
unknown.

because love is not
the lover,
because the gift
may not receive.
because presence is
a passing glance
between a wish
and thieves.

because being there
is far from here,
and going isn’t
gone.
because further from
truth seems closer
to true
when all is said
and done.

When
iii.

when dreams twist
when eyes miss
when hearts bend
when starts end
when words slip
when thoughts spin
when life takes
when day breaks
when earth moves
when hands soothe
when loss finds
when dark shines
when friends give
when hope lives
when love sparks
when time tells…

listen.

When
ii.

put on your best dress.
walk into the woods.

sit.

until the sun sets.
until the color fades.
until the moon wanes.
until the night passes.
until the wind scatters.
until the dawn breaks.
until the snow melts.
until the river washes.
until the tide turns.
until the lines blur.
until the spring blooms.

ask:

when
will there be
no spaces?

When
i.

raise a glass.
pour life.
don’t say when.

January
v.

my returning
makes you wish for
days I’m gone
said the wind



in forgetting
we uncover truth
said the moon



let me bring you
a picnic
said the river
let me sing
a lullaby of
tree tops
tangled roots and
bones
because I remember
rocking you
because you are all
I hold