And just as
one candle goes 
out then another 
and then another 
so slows your 
heart until finally 
it too catches 
sleep’s own rhyme 
and the oars
of dreams dip
and push you 
farther and farther 
away from here
until at last 
you are gone 
then from me 
and there are

It’s now 
in silence 
it’s simple 
but before 
in furies
raging rhetoric 
when words
flew by
as quickly 
as cards
from the 
hands of 
an amateur 
magician stinging 
smoldering burning 
when chips 
were pushed 
and bet
all or
nothing we
paused and 
then flew 
into onto 
each other 
and rage
became passion
became calm 
finally found 
in the 
quiet eye

Imagine a life 
of always pushing 
of corralling and 
of confining of
cooping things up 
in order to 
always keep order 
and then once 
one doesn’t do 
that other things 
begin to happen 
not chaos necessarily 
but life freedom 
expression people come 
rather than go
letting things be 
is the only 
way to letting 
things happen and 
the very same 
things that happen 
will have theirs 
dreams need room
just like people 
to emerge and 
to bloom and 
then to blossom 
and then become 

He’s coming 
not back
but forward 
he’s been 
the one 
who keeps 
appearing here 
in front 
of me 
a bit 
ghost a
bit reminder
a bit 
promise a
bit hope 
that maybe 
the place 
I’m looking 
isn’t the 
place where 
I’ll find 

Any person’s priority 
must be themselves 
it’s not selfish 
it is necessary 
if one can’t 
find some way 
to make themselves 
happy then there
is no way 
that anyone else 
will ever either 
despite what people 
think or believe 
we are complements
but not niceties
we don’t fold 
into one another 
but rather reflect 
if one’s weak
then the other 
is even weaker 
straighten your house 
before you invite 
anyone to join