Edges and acorns

The mountain doesn’t look like a mountain

when it’s all painted up with leaves and acorns

and leftover drops of sun.

It’s more an artwork on canvas,

something that I can appreciate but not feel squashed by.

It’s when it’s stark and white,

only its sharpness and jagged edges to display

that my head decides to landslide

and any progress I’ve made

erases itself until

the next leaf fall.

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City Scape

The cities reflect me as I stand on the edge,

cliff nose to window. They would be castles

in the air, if I didn’t look down

to see the miles below where eyes are open,

ogling until the soil, until the grave.

They have the scent of sweet rot,

that candy cane gutter pile left

for the elves in high viz jackets

(that render them invisible to the streets and suits);

underpaid, overworked, and tired – so tired.

And still those glassy screens profess

fresh lilies, crisp and bred to perfection.

Islands

They crawled from the fire as it merged with the sea,

solidifying into mountains and peaks

where pupils suck in the view beyond.

Long gone are the days when they spat lava

at each other, rugrats playing on the molten hearth.

The ocean now crafts salt statues on their shores.

 

Role Play

Shuffling papers shakes up memories

into cinematic strips

that play on auto after every introduction.

Arranged this way,

how do we know they’re real anymore?

Morphed over time, nipped and tucked,

folded, welded, enshrined and entombed,

buried fast or brought forwards by warm words

from different perspectives.

We are made of stories.

We are stories.

Every Once Upon A Time

threaded into our minds through and through.

Nice Trip

I’ve been known to trip on air.

And not merely stumble,

but fall headfirst into

 

a tree, lamppost, grass, concrete.

 

Some times are more painful than others.

 

People tell me it’s lack of attention,

that my head

is so far in the clouds

I can’t see what’s right in front of me.

But I promise you,

it’s just air.

 

How can I avoid air?

 

Now don’t be silly, even if

I hold my breath,

it’ll still be around me.

 

My theory is a little different.

I think I get drunk

on the vibrancy in my head

and the earth gets jealous.

It believes it can never

live up

to such standards,

and so seeks to jog them

from my mind.

 

What it forgets

is that in order to think

such wonderful, impossible things,

I must first learn to appreciate

the real, the possible.

 

Otherwise, there is no foundation

for me to then sculpt with.

The weight on our shoulders

Is not a burden to bear.

It is unexpected in so many ways, yet

there was never a chance for us to avoid it:

the path seeming tangent but twisting and connecting just in time.

Train tracks flipped by a single switch

that altered the course of everything.

Solid ground to stand on, legs strengthened by hours walking

and arms willing to hold no matter the babble.

Forging days into weeks,

this is how it has been.

Outside, they do not see it. Outside, they see haste.

But those eyes are untrained in our ways

to warp

that mysterious river

simply by welcoming it with open hearts.

Tranquillity

Balance, arm outs.

I’ll catch you if you fall.

Smell the fresh cut grass

and the scent of a barbecue on the evening breeze.

 

Hold me, and I’ll hold you.

 

You think you are always yang,

always darkness with a touch of light.

Who is to say

that the dark isn’t positive?

It could lead anywhere,

to anything.

A mystery.

A well of adventures

that I can take part in

simply by holding your hand.

 

Lie with me on the ground.

Let us laugh, let us talk,

let us truly live.

 

And not just now, in the moment.

Forever.

Because forever is only a long way off

if you view it that way.

So shake up your viewfinder and dust the lens.

 

Fresh eyes on a beautiful sunset.

Or is it a dawn?

Sweet almond paste

You pop it into my mouth, expecting

me to savour the taste

as it melts on my tongue.

It’s pleasant, yes, but the sweetness

is just that little bit too sweet,

almost spoiling the rest.

 

The day you took those photographs,

you said I looked sweet.

Was I over sweet?

Your smile was never true after that,

as though suddenly you’d seen more

than you were hoping for

but were still left disappointed.

 

The paste in my mouth has completely

broken down now.

Just like my image of you.

Open your eyes

Fire climbs up my flesh,

seeping through my pores –

my veins are charged

with impulse.

The ledge of the world is before me.

I step up and finally

see the vastness beyond.

Coiled, my knees spring

to launch

my body down.

I ride the air’s waterfall;

I don’t fear the fall.

Someone will catch me.

They always do.

And if that fails, my shoulders

will ignite with ember-flower wings

to carry me back

where I belong.