They Say No Man Is An Island So I Am No Man I Am Merely Made Of Sand In An Unknown Ocean I Am Just A

I learned how to sing So I could talk to the birds They always listen to me Even if they don't know the words

I learned how to bark So I could talk to the trees They know all about you All about you and me

I've learned to be quiet To be still in my mind To feel the earth turn As the world was designed

This poem got away from me How cliche It's something all poets will say So am I a poet at all? If I'm just letting the words fall Where they may?

(I wouldn't describe myself that way)

I felt alone in my skin No, worse so I was a hostage inside myself Choking on a growing body Suffocating in adolescence

My pretty hair was like rope Tying me to a chair Shackled, cuffed I wore a constricting costume That was too hot and sweaty

And I was stuck there Because my flesh Could not be pulled off Up over my head, yet My bones were aching to breathe

I envy the orchid For choosing when to perish To go dormant for An eternity that lasts as long As it chooses

I envy the orchid That it might sleep forever Then rise swiftly Like a flowering phoenix Back to life

I didn't put you on a pedestal for worship I lifted you up As high as you deserved Which was, of course, very high What is it like in the sky? I am grounded I promise It was never just the idea of you How I wish you would touch me down here

I like the smell of steady rain The sound it makes on glass Quietly crashing Against the window pane The clouds a wall of heavy gray A day that's seemingly mundane

In silence he takes out the pieces And I pick out the strain Then he watches me get lost in Faraway thoughts that drift away He can't hear our hidden heartbeat Like a drumming through my brain I might have washed away Still here in water we remain

Without reading any of my written words Is it possible to truly know me? Mind musings, soul serenades This feels like the only accurate, undiluted Version of my being

If you've never met my body Maybe you know me better than most Or maybe to know me is reading both Poetry being the translation of my body language Into my mother tongue

So I'll lay my words down delicately, intentionally Hoping you see them A dialect spoken just between us Yes, you would know me I think you could know me entirely this way

The winter cardinals Have finished their work Of raising wobbly chicks Into fierce and steady Juveniles, ready to Graze the sky with the Tips of their wings And soar off gracefully Away on their own breeze A fresh, solo journey

The parents are not Left behind, they are Quietly content, free To fly wherever they please The male a radiant scarlet And she such prominent earth Tones, the blazing yellow Of their beaks like Flames flying by on the Biting morning winds

The serene songbirds Mated for life, they fly Side by side, sharing One current of frigid air Wings spread out together As they glide in sync With nothing more to be Done, they settle in their Empty nest and sleep freely And warmly with each other

Come to me asking for love And I will lay you down in the Forest clearing Sun through the branches Slivers of gold, tiny trickling rivers Like goddesses over your skin. Here it is, I will tell you Here in the damp grass, on top Of the mossy rocks, softness I can't offer that anymore Though I want to Gaia, please take it from here

Snake bites I became the viper I was a beautiful Venomous biter

Pointed piercings Below my bottom lip To match my heart Once bleeding and ripped

I miss them now They kept everyone Away

They promised If you try to steal My pleasure You must also Feel my pain

Like you might Admire the clouds And then be Angry at the rain

That if you Don't care for The predator When it hurts you

You do not Deserve To be coiled Safely in my arms

I harbor devotion So I would slither away And desert you