Friday, July 3, 2009

Sticky

Sure, they say 
Stick to what you know
They say

Well I know that love isn't sticky

But I know love

Yes I know how to make it
I know how to tear it apart
I can pretend well that I have it
And I know how to pretend that I don't 

Yes I know love

Enough to know that love doesn't know me
Love and me are a pair of smooth stones
We are two positive magnets
I'm round, and love is for squares

Yes I know love

And I know that love isn't sticky

But they say 
Stick to what you know
They say


Jealous Anthropology in a Coffee Shop

Strands of Her hair fall
from beneath other strands
following the lines of Her face 
toward Him

Her jaw
Her nose
Her eyes

All pointed toward Him

The slightest revelation of  
The woman in Her
calls to the man in Me
demanding my undivided attention
and once she has it

I OBSERVE

One leg up, arms folded
toes pointed

Eyes focused

Her shoulders collapse inward
if they could only touch each other
maybe everything would be alright

She just wants this "thing" to work
She's just desperate to be held

She's thinking
'I wish we were the same thing'

He's thinking
'maybe if She was, what I am'

I'm thinking
'All I want out of existence is 
for one to look at me 
the way She's looking at Him' 

Like He's a key 
and He will unlock every closed door
and every hidden chest

but when those doors open
and those chests 
yield up their priceless treasures 

She will not enter in
and She will give them all away

because , He
is enough

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Donnie's Odyssey: A Not So Epic Poem

Birth
 
Setting sail
from my mother's womb
I depended
I depended and I needed
 
I was innocence embodied
I was weakness in flesh
I was simultaneously joy and burden
 
Growth
 

rode the wind hard
climbed the tree in my front yard
as high as the branches grew
thick enough to stand on
 

rode my bike barefoot, 

drank from the hose
I
flew corner store kites, and 
 
I played with G.I. Joes 
 
MOLDED
 
Flesh. Is. God's. Clay.
And HE seemed determined to make something out of me.
 
Resistance
 
I rode my skooter to the 
toy store and lifted
a couple of Ninja Turtles
for my collection
 
then I 
 
skooted through our ghetto park
and sat on the ice-plant bank
with the new girl in the neighborhood
who replaced Corey & Nathan
 
She 
 
showed me what a girl looks like beneath her dress
and my 
7 year-old body didn't know how to interpret it
 
I think that I kissed her
'Cause that's what movie stars did
but a child that age just hasn't learned how to work it
 
As an 
adult I wonder
what was hap'ning in her home
to teach her that that's the way a
young girl should behave?
 

wish I could talk with her about 
what went down but I
can't even remember her name
 
Change
 
We moved to the south side where the
only other white kids were
overbearing and over-weird
 
Holiday haters, and wrestling fanatics with
'Nam vet uncles and trailer trash step mothers
 
So I 
made friends with brown Kenny & black Jamal
who called me white boy 
and made me aware that we were different
 
We rode bikes, threw rocks at cars
killed yellow jackets with wet rags
played horse and 
listened to Chris Cross and A Lighter Shade of Brown
 
We watched the older boys play hoop
and Pretty Tony the autistic giant
got mad for some reason I can't recall
 
and if he had
remembered to check if the
pair of nines he came back with were loaded
we'd have been witnesses to murder that afternoon 
 
Puberty
 
I
developed a belly and I
developed a lip
to cut back at my class mates 'cause
J.R. high kids can be brutal
 
so I
called Alberto's mom a whore
when he called me fat boy but then he
put his money where his mouth was and almost
shattered my nose
 
I called 
Jason a nigger when he
punched me in the arm in
MS. McGill's eighth grade science class
 
but the shame for my ignorance
stung more intensely then when he
and Ryan chased me after school and beat my ass 
 
MOLDED
 
Flesh. Is. God's. Clay.
And HE seemed determined to make something out of me.
 
Resistance
 
I stood outside of my
first high school with
Kid Johnny, Tessa, and Miss K.B.
 
When K.B. asked me if I 
smoked and I lied, then I choked
on about 6 puffs of her Virginia Slim cigarette
 
So I
started to smoke every
chance that I got and I
still don't know what it is about killing yourself that's so cool
 
then we'd
hot-box, John's mom's
Oldsmobile nightly and I was
starting to feel, like I had
stopped feeling anything
 
except cool
 
and that was enough for me because
friendship was more addicting than
weed and nicotine 
 
Change
 
I started to notice where
John's life was headed
heavier drugs and
skin head mentality
 
and it 
scared me to think that we were
on the same path so I
quit everything cold turkey and started
listening in church
 
I changed my language and I
changed my walk but I was
unaware that it was
too easy
 
So although the next
3 or 4 years went fairly smoothly 
my world collapsed in my mid 20's 
when life hit me
 
Circles
 

remember sitting in my car with
Old Man Bones who told me he'd
given up on God because God had
given up on him
 
so I told him that it's
God's time we're on and that he
needed to study and be patient and his
prayers would be answered then
 
A year later I was 
sitting in my car cursing
God for everything that had happened
 
I said I'm
giving up on you because you've
given up on me and the
scariest part is that
at the time I really meant it 
 
Decay
 
When my
mom called to say that she was
leaving my dad it took
everything I am 
not to drown myself in booze 
 
which is crazy 'cause I can't recall them 
ever being happy but I
thought like sea captains they'd 
be buried in their sinking ship
 
Love
 
Then I met a woman who was
so full of life that it was
hard not to live a fuller life 
just for knowing her
 
she was a
 
free thinking catholic and I an
agnostic mormon with
intentions to keep practicing and 
someday believe again and
 
neither of us would be changing anytime soon
but I couldn't help falling in love with her
 
because
everything she did and said
made me happy but
ev'ry thing I did and said made her mad
 
we would
fight and then make and then
fight and then make up 
 
but no breakup because 
we were never officially anything and 
 
fin'ly she fell for a
man with vocal chords that
god must have touched with his bare hands 
 
now they
fight and then make and then
fight and then make up 
 
but she's
happy loving him and I've moved on to 
my mother land
 
Circles
 
I came
home to an empty house my
fam'ly divided and my
home felt dif'rent though my
mother tried to make it
 
homey for holidays for
my sister and for me and
I owe so much to that woman
 
Weight
 
still life kept  stacking up
and getting  harder to carry and
I felt like my support system was almost 
non existent 
 
but my 
friends were trying to 
carry me they were 
Christ's hands and I was 
brother Lazarus raised up
 
Reckoning 
 
One night I told my mom about my anger
I said I've
given up on God 'cause God has 
given up on me 
 
and she said you
can't blame god for every
thing that happens in your
life that you don't like
and there's a lot of good too
 
but I had
heard that before and it 
didn't change how I 
felt that God didn't really 
care about me
 
Change 
 

don't remember what she
said that changed me but I 
opened back up to
positive feeling as though
 
Legion was in me and now 
a group of pigs were over
drowning themselves in the bay across the way
 
Supplication 
 

went to my room and I got
down on my knees and then I
prayed for what seemed like hours and hours
 
Gratitude
 

thanked god for every thing that I 
had and it might stun you to 
hear the things that I was 
grateful for
 
I said I’m
Grateful for people who have
wronged me and hurt me and I’m
grateful that I saw a
loved one in jail
 
I’m
grateful for every piece of
My heart I’ve left with someone
Who hasn’t been able to
Give me their own
 
I’m
grateful for poverty, for struggling, for loneliness
I’m
grateful for weight problems and bad karma
I’m
grateful for failed missions and nights in anguish
 
I’m grateful for everything that’s made me who I am
 
 
 and the things I felt I can't 
say to you here because 
some things are just
too sacred but
 
Let's just say that though I'm
still a sinner I have
better awareness of the hand guiding my way
 
MOLDED
 
Flesh. Is. God's. Clay.
And HE still seems determined to make something out of me.

A Song Involving Kites

My friend Ashley sent me these lyrics via text and I quite like them. I hope you enjoy-

"Let's pretend we're riding on a kite. We'll ascend until we're out of sight, light as paper we'll soar. We'll recline, aloft upon the breeze, dart about,  sail in wind with ease. That's what living is for. Some things are meant to be, the tide turning endlessly, the way it takes hold of me no matter what I do. And some things will never die, the promise of who you are, or memories when I am far, from you."