A Prayer Among These Poems

keep his heart beating
i'm a small force under your superior voice
keep his mind churning
i'm a helpless child on her knees in your protective arms
keep his soul on the ground away from the stars

i'm a believer in what you've shown me
i may stumble and i may fall for the foolish
but you're who i'm always led back to
my soul needs what you've given me
he's stationed in my heart
you're a part of my heart

i'll always pray to you
when my eyes are blind,
in the middle of the night
when my heart is fatigued,
my tears running away from their prison
when i'm low and when i'm high
you're all i need

keep me,
amen

The Earth

our gift...
our home under heaven
our home in God's hands
our home in the angel's care

our sanctuary
playground
paradise
camp
reserve
textbook
hospital
scrapbook
safe place
war zone
wonder
keepsake
origin
amusement park
birthplace
church
fountain
protection
inspiration
muse
canvas
resource

our
past
present
and
future

For the Malnourished Heart

i don't know any of your names
too sad to ask
too sad to get to know you
or you
i hate to have you settle
with being a stranger
to my eyes, to my heart
a heart that has no more room
for love or friendship

it won't hold love anymore
it hates the taste
having lived without it for so long
a malnourished heart
it hates the taste
so feed it love
and it'll spit it back out
in your face

what does a human, like me or you
turn to
when love is out of all the questions?

He created us with love in mind
love should have a place
in all of our hearts
but what happens
when it doesn't?

The Son of Divorce

the pain only dulls in my heart
for a few tired weeks
and then it festers, break-heartingly again
giving birth to fresh wounds

i'm clueless when up against a power
when the pain attacks
it enjoys itself
i'm an easy target

but when you're the strength i feel
that surges through my nerves
i am the victor
the pain dulls to a nothing

a nothing, vulnerable, defeated
a coward is the son of divorce

The Moon Never Sets

my only companion
is the space heater
that oscillates
in its corner by the outlet

the lamp by the television
proudly wears a crooked lamp shade

the bottle of Pepsi
at my feet is loyal
and fuel to last me 'til 6:15 a.m.
on a school night

(the pencil is each vein)

i'm a single heart
beside the voices of each verse
that breaks free of the speakers

my eyelids gain weight
as we sail into the depth of the night
twilight slipped into the trance of slumber
hours ago
and midnight is diving deeper into rest
as each song becomes a lullaby

the night whispers revolutions
that day could never fathom
the night is real and never sugarcoats the epiphanies
it grants you

(the words are my blood)

(the paper is my heart)

The Poet in the Classroom

every moment that gets by you
is analyzed by the poet in the classroom
she yanks them out of the empty sea
and mentally gives each one their poetic self
praying the moments won't wander into the woods
or step out onto the street
until she makes it home to compose their cohesive reflections
tracing the epiphanies of the moments

once each one is retold and justified
she opens her mind
and sets the treasured moments free
watching the wonders wander for a bit
until they're lost in the horizon

she sighs
she's satisfied
the words are hers
i am the poet in the classroom