All at Once and Never at All

Swim or Drown
I cry in bitter booms
I cry in deep and cool waves and swim in the thought of you
I am alive in the sway and am awakened by the reflection of the sun
You the energy of my body
You giving life to death and death to death
I cry tears to the distance of you
And pray in deep longing and burning when I am awakened by your breath
I swallow oceans in your presence
I sing my sun’s youth to you
I dance in paintings to the song of you
I move to you, the sun
I move when you, the sun are present
When your heart moves as the ocean
Billions of moves and waves and eddies and peace
I move with you, my song follows you to the depth of yours
To swim or drown
To rise with the waves of your words toward the autumn moon
Or to fall to the dark bottomless bottom you fall
I move with you



Young
I burn and bathe in shallow grooves
I sway with the yellow of the earth
I bury myself in brown crumbling tunnels
I am a thousand words before me
I have mouthed them well at passers by
I am youth! I am bare skin young and menacing
Honey brown and smooth with time
My hands are silk and strong
They carry mountains
And my open eyes seeping into the skin of elders
My hands rule this world
They are the creator of anything and everything all at once and never at all
I am conquering mountains with each step forward
The sun welcomes me he says, “Today is a bright day for youth!”


We stand by oceans
Menacing as they are
We are bigger in presence
My voice, my words, my thoughts, my deeds, are bigger than my body can stand
I am turning blue with the sky
I am possibilities and I make up all of this earth with my breath



Silent Feminine Games
You bring me down in cords in tunnels
You move chairs away from me
You move moons away from my window
You look away when there’s nothing to see
You move in hurricane tunnels to the sound and sway of nothingness
I am pennies to you
I sit towers above towers
And you see nothing but ground
You fly clouds to see me
And you bring wind, your gift of game
I sit un-mentioning to you, I sit alone away from you
I sit in silent feminine games
And blink in silent feminine moods
And you drink the honor’s drink
And you let me fall like sand

To the Earth that Buries Me
I fold in like cages
I bend and fold like concrete
I bend my hands at the sounds of the sun
I drink my life into drowning
I move and am moved
I let my song to be sung
I am not a failed figured temptress
I do not wake to the sounds of death
I do not string my voice in cords of thunder
I am worth bags of you
I am worth mountains
You the eyes sewn into knots
You the casket, the fire
You the tunnel the binds me
The rope that feeds me
The lock that keeps me witness to white cords that drape me blind
You the giver of hope and loss of mind
You who measures me in paper cuts
Oh you the bleeding wrist
You who makes me become the earth
You who will punish me with daggered bliss



Office Monday
Monday you are the bad news!
You are whispered about in offices
In corners by the coffee pot
Everyone publically loathes you!
Monday you are the goodbye to everything that was free
Oh Monday you poor thing
You are the stab in the corner of our eyes
You are the reminder again of the start of working days
And the farthest away from family weekends together
Of staying out late and renting movies
Of not waking up to early morning screaming alarm clocks
You are away from parties and drinking
Of working on hobbies or meeting potential attractive glares
Of comfortable couch cuddling with loved ones
You are the mess and cleanup after the celebration
You are the “do I have to?”
You are the dragging feet wrapped in business shoes
Who are taken out from weekend hiding
You are the reminder of back to the grind and real world
You are a reminder that we are slaves to ourselves and our money and our cars
You are the poor hated made up day in our minds that we’ve automatically accepted as bad because you are a culture assigned and infested day
All reminders of the far away famously celebrated happy day off that is Friday
Oh poor Monday, people refer to you as their first bad day
People say they hate you Monday! People want to sleep through you!
They say, today is my Friday! Hooray!
Oh Friday the wretched pretty prom girl
Who died and made Friday king?!
Oh poor Monday I say we reassign days
I say we have dates on Mondays!! Picnics and parties!
Monday I say we start rumors in the office about you, that you are the start of something new!
I’ll tell everyone that you are the beginning of hard work, and of freedom because we are allowed to work in the first place!
I’ll make flyers that declare Monday gold! Monday means money and seeing your co-workers and having the ability to work, and of good coffee, and swiveling chairs, and of office gossip!
I’ll send memos that say that Monday is another day that we are thankful for being alive, another day to get things done and to be productive and to learn something new!
Oh Monday! You poor thing, we’ll make something of you yet.