Surrender

Alice wipes the hair from her face

The best surprises are yet to come

We miss the joy of thought

The skip and trip of being

When we were left alone to laugh like girls

Side stepping the thorny issue of womanhood

Surrendering to the floor

Laughing and rolling

Sailing in the archaic scent of silver and shine

We miss the sweet deceit of powder

It was the best thing we could do

The only thing

The sweetest thing

Bending spoons in the heat of the afternoon

Following our only path

Being someone and all

We miss the joy of thought

No two alike

You know it's just a different prison

The laughing man said

Scanning our eyes for weakness

Painted nails and dirty shirts

Hmm, can you trust him

Alice fondles the hem of her dress

The stitches are coming loose in slivers

Silly

No one can be trusted in this house of fools.

Sanctuary

She wraps her fingers around my ears

It is too loud here

We have been dragged from our sanctuary once again

Time tick tocks

Watch stopped on the time we were arrested

It's all so very wrong

Alice slouches on the single wooden bed

We will spend endless hours here looking at the walls

We try not to cry

To show weakness is a window to our soul

And that is empty and ruined

We have been dragged from our sanctuary once again

The doors locked

The chains rattle

We crave silence and the soft red bed

She wraps her fingers around my ears

It is too loud here

There's no place like home

To survive here we must forget it exists.

Relapse

We lie together drawing circles in the air

Embracing the rapture of another relapse

We shake not in bliss

Self loathing

Mean thoughts rolling waves

A sea of wishes and hate

The triggers light the ceiling

The broccoli boils over

We are hungry and tired

Still, we carry on

Picking the strings of hope

Trying to cast away the desire to remain still

We should delight in being

Instead each day is a war

We wish we had not been born

She presses her tiny fingers to my lips

Gives me water when there is drought

We lie together drawing circles in the air

Embracing the rapture of another relapse.

Mask

We sit in the room

Always waiting for something or someone to come

You know they won't

Alice giggles

I dust the powder from my sleeves and wait

My hair a mess of swirls and twirls

Dancing and laughing

All the world a stage

We are but players

I sit in the room

Always waiting for something or someone to come

The cars chug and splutter a new song

I sit and wait

Always waiting for something or someone to come.

Bath

We stir the water in the bath tub

Blackbirds slipping off cold grey skin

Behind the storm mask lies a truth

Dirty and hanging 

What we need and what we want collide like galaxies in the night

Should we stir

Paint leafless trees on our horizon

We dig our skin

Scratch at old wounds

Try to see the words

Turn nothing into some poetic dance

As we flee 

A brutal storm mask 

Blackbirds slipping off cold grey skin

The dirt collects under our fingers

Pens and paper ready to explode

Not much more to see

A blank face

An empty page

We dig our skin

Scratch at old wounds

Try to see the words

They say all hangs in the balance

But we are empty as a drum

Sat in a cold tub facing a truth we can no longer bear to hold.

Movement

We walk in circles in the night

Strung out high on jelly bean skies 

Powder dribbles down our chin

No way out

Or in

We sit and listen 

Endless stories

Far removed from us 

The quiet us

Two hands waiting to scribble and scrawl ourselves into being 

Movement for us is constant

Never a time to be quiet and still 

Boredom 

Endless years 

But at least we are together 

We walk in circles in the night

Strung out high on jelly bean skies.

Drunk

We hold hands in a festival of foolish caravans

The walls are splattered and chilled

Stars coat our eyes

If only we could wear our poems

Fruit like wine

Drunk cool on a summer night

We pick out a favorite tune

Dance silently against the sheets

Pick a rhythm

Make a plume

False prophets on a quiet afternoon

We are only together by chance

Craving bitter fruits

Lining the floor with wet paper

Nothing takes the smell away

We are stuck in this chill

The walls splattered

Holding hands in a festival of foolish caravans

We should have listened before the sky fell down

Now we pick a path that aches and swirls

Never ending afternoon

Cash shot down like sheets in the wind

If only we could wear our poems

Fruit like wine

Drunk cool on a summer night.

Independence

We dust the salt from our lips

Another day fades and falls in the shadow of being

There is never enough powder to dull the aches and pains

We walk in circles

Feet adrift on distant shores

Clinging to independence like a raft in the night

Alice spies the light house

I sink

Unable to swim any more

We dust the salt from our lips

Another day fades and falls in the shadow of being

And this is freedom Alice says

I turn on my side

Hear the clunk of cans empty and desolate

If there is land ahead it truly is a dream.

Benediction

Our hips touch in the night

Seldom a wisp

A melody of thought

Benediction and prayer

A wave of tribes

Lips stuck stuck sticky on stones

There are chores to be done

Boxes to be packed

Rooms to be made

Are we willing to change or remain like clerks

Chalking up the damage like spit

Expectations dropping like pips

Strangers walking through a forest of fear

We swallow clumps of hair

No place left to wonder

A smock of cotton covering us in the cold

It's hard to remember what we own

Scrabbling through the rubble

Quaking silently and violently

Our hips touch in the night

Seldom a wisp

A melody of thought

Benediction and prayer.