The Glass Top Stove

I clean the house

When I feel helpless.

If I can just clean that little spot

I would have something.

And being able to do something,

Is meaningful

In a world filled with sorrow.

 

A glass top stove

So scorched and black

From months of neglect

Calls for attention.

I stand above it

wondering how it got so worn.

How my life has

Left me

Scorched and black?

Charred remains,

Remaining ever charred.

 

My hand moves clockwise

As I scrub counter-clockwise.

The end result is insignificant.

The scorchedness remains.

 

I wonder why she left

Without a word.

Her pain too strong,

For niceties,

For reconciliation.

 

The grey speckled

Surface of the stove

Peeks through

The darkness.

How many months will

This take to shine?

How many years did

the sorrow mount?

Quiet avoidance

Of simple connections.

Vigorous denials

Of ever increasing distance,

Obscuring even the smallest

Sign of affection.

 

I work an hour,

Then two.

The darkness remains.

The pain remains.

This will not go away

Like my darling girl,

My darling gentle girl.

 

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Life Continues

Life continues after the music ceases.

You stand unsure

Of which direction to turn

All paths seem sadly familiar

A solitary violinist

Playing something

Vaguely recognizable

On a busy city’s street.

 

And life continues, after the music ceases.

The actor sits alone facing

The dressing room mirror

After the final curtain

The actors have left

The audience has left

But he remains

Unwilling or unable

To let go

Of the joy he felt

Under brightly beaming stagelights.

 

And life continues, after the music ceases.

With or without you

The moments pass

No longer intriguing

A crumpled smile

In silence.

 

Her Eyes 101418

Her eyes, her eyes, were like her eyes.

Her nose was like her nose

And that is all that I can say,

For that is how it goes.

 

I’ve spent my life, a hollow shell,

No peace from deep inside.

A stranger even to myself

With nowhere left to hide.

 

Her eyes, her eyes, those lovely eyes,

Her smile filled my soul.

No longer was there emptiness.

A temporary shoal.

 

What I thought

I thought that there was nothing left.

I was wrong.

I did not understand the depth of my feelings for you.

There is still no one

Who can make me rejoice

At a flash of your smile

Like you do.

And there is still no one

Who can uncover

My infinite loneliness.

 

Equinox 050718

Your sun-drenched smile has thawed my winter walls

Ice, so thick, no one could enter.

The dark cave where I have hid myself

From all others,

No matter their intentions,

No longer cloaks me in my sorrow.

 

You have done

Nothing but bring your warmth

Nothing but smile completely

Melting, melting lonely frost

Like the sun passing its vernal equinox

Calling Inanna from the underworld.

 

I know this spring

Cannot, will not last

But it’s call,

It’s warm winds

Gently lifts my hopes.

And demands emergence

From my winter worries.

 

As I stand exposed

Willing to risk the pain of connecting,

Of connections.

I hope for a fleeting moment,

Bathed in gentle breezes

And soft scented kisses.

K.K.

 

Tired of being alone.

Tired of sleeping alone.

Writing empty words

On cluttered pages.

I didn’t feel this way

A day ago.

But now I do.

Because of you.

 

And then again 041718

I look down the street at night

Forced perspective in grey scale.

Sharp lines slicing my field of vision

Like the pains of broken glass

Clinging to a misremembered past,

Dividing me from happiness.

The shards eager to slice

And the distance remains distant

And my contentment contentious.

 

I look up into the night sky

The stars reflect pale colors of

Rose, blue, and gold

Blackened forms streak above

Destroying the silent beauty

Of the moon’s soft call

The dark spirits eager to

tear my hopes like

tissue paper on empty floors.

Dropped in distraction, abstractions.

 

I think of you

And then again

My shattered world

Is a reflection

Of multitudes

And multitudes

Of reflections

Of my shattered world

And then again

I think of you.