Foreign Dreams

I traced my handprint on the ground,
Not sure exactly what I'd found.
And thund'ring stallions in the sky
Paid no heed as I passed by.

My heart is faint, my knees are weak,
I don't know what it is I seek.

The trees stretched out to slap my face,
Said I'd disgraced a sacred place.

Where I came from's growing dim,
I'm living only on a whim.

I strained to hear a single word,
Then pressed my ear to grass and heard
A million voices crying out
But I don't know what's it's about.

The river climbed up past the shore
To wash clean what was done before,
But night rushed in and beat it down,
The moon her heart, the stars her gown.

I met eyes with an ancient bear,
We both stood deathly still to stare.
Massive troubles all freeze silent,
I know one day they may turn violent.

Oh, beauty knows no bounds, and yet
It hasn't graced a soul I've met.

I'm going home, that's all I know,
Sure wish I knew the way to go.

But no matter where I flicker,
My love and courage grow still thicker,
And I will walk these foreign dreams
Until everything is what it seems.

Wolf Cry

Magnificent spirit,
My soul is ever weighted with you.
Brother, my brother, I grieve you as dying.

Come run the forests,
Come walk the plains,
Come ease my pain.

Let me finger your prints in the damp, cool mud.
Let me surpass my language,
Let yours come pouring from within me,
Let me throw back my head with an ancient cry.

I shall grieve you as your sister,
A lost one of the pack.
I return to you and pay respects,
You are wizened, tired, and grand.
I grieve the life I have lost with yours.

Bring me back to the circle,
Back to the gray skies and shallow dens.
I am home in a dome-shaped den,
Comforted and solid.

That my ears might draw back to honor you,
That a tail might flourish in greeting,
That your spirit might enter my heart and live therein,
And I, this little sister, sleep in peace again.

Soul-Storms

Beauty lies encrusted
In the eye of every storm,
Sequestered and entrusted
To each heart that watches o’er.

Storms rage captivated
In the soul of every being,
Unemancipated
Till our birth-wet wings might soar.

Summer storms are raging
In my soul this weighted night.
Through volumes here I’m paging
For the truth I thought I knew.

I’ll uproot the crystal beauty,
Unsung, yet all alight,
Alight with piercing mystery,
My soul-storms, silver blue.

Self-Window

I am Danielle.
Do you know me?

I am Danielle of two: two names, two directions, two harmonies,
In whose blood burns a coward and heroine, in whose eyes is a spark and a shadow.
My soul is the hue of frozen light; I am staring out windows, longing to see shapes in the heavy mist, be they dark or celestial, I only wish to see.
Can you see me?

I am Danielle, who is quick of mind and slow of wit,
I am admired, appreciated, analyzed: I am forgotten as eyes slide away.
I am Danielle, thirsting for originality, but I am Danielle, craving conformity,
Who fears conflict, trembling, lights ablaze, drinks it in, spews it out,
A fire-eater, drunk on that which is fatal.
Am I simple in your eyes?

I am Danielle, who longs to breathe beauty, and I will strain my eyes to blindness to find it, searching as brown plants search for sunlight.
I shall wither, or I shall blossom; either way, you have known me, and I am valued.
Awkward silence is mine, and dearly cherished stillness is mine.
I poke at distant souls,
And will flee from any half-formed beast,
But if you are a half-formed beast I will love you to fullness.
Have I loved you?

I am Danielle, who sings with her being, dances alone to the silence, turns to stone in the presence of faces, loving or cold.
I squeeze, pat, and bend words into the shape of my flickering thoughts.
You have seen them; they are not true.
I am a sculptor with hands too rough and heavy.
I am a half-hearted artist of dreams that will crush my regrets, those actions trickling out as sand between my fingers, grandeur carried halfway home.
I am Danielle, with voice too loud and words too soft.
Can you hear me?

I am Danielle, an eternal amateur.
Brimming with talent and possibility and “if,” of everything,
I shall be always good, I shall never be great, blessed and cursed so.
I have grown up too fast and left myself behind, and I am behind you with silent understanding even as you look up at me.
I have watched you, and seen you, and known you, and loved you, and envied you.
Would you believe me?
I am Danielle, flowing in this place, with every flame, drop, wisp, and grain.
I am aware of all that is in me, and therefore of all that is, and nothing that matters.

Will you remember me?

Dream-Born

Once upon a night we met,
My archangel, guiding star.
Dream-born, tenderly sunset,
Chaste whisper from afar.

(I held your soul in my hand; be aware! I am a question yet unanswered.)

Through the laden labyrinth,
Alone, exclude your voice.
Beating heart and passion-calm,
Strong and soft as song and psalm.

(I know you knew as I that nothing is liberating as a broken watch, or charming as a duck.)

You don’t think that I could drink
Of life as others do.
In strife, in wandering, just once
I found my footsteps true.

(My dimension was a tangle, children and charm, and you were all the greatness in me.)

Plastic walls in bated halls,
Wind and red and death.
Before I slashed my boundaries,
You cried out, froze my breath.

(I clasp young feral memories with me, swathed in threads of purple passion.)

I found you in the end of time,
And begged your arms to stay.
Suffused with love regretful then,
I vowed to go along my way.

(You must have been caged, or awoken I’d have never.)

Reality undid the dream,
Dusky, sorry sighs.
Realize I had to go,
Moon-fed spark, and now I know.

(You will save me again, and we will dare to believe in clichés. We are imminent and certain.)

Return to Calypso

Once upon a time
I spoke of the edge of the universe
With longing and
Infantile conviction.
Well now,
Now...

Feverish skies breathing emerald and tar
Watch over this broken dragon,
This crippled wildcat.

And certainly your arms wrap around me,
Dusky voice in a lemonade-magma whisper,
Sliding down the back of my neck.
Indeed ten fingers melt together,
An awkward fit, sore, but seamless,
Watching eternity crumble.

Yet now I understand;
This snug embrace is terror-born and
Locked like climber's knot,
Lying on cheap cotton sheets
In the bedroom of the girl I was,
Watching the alarm clock and
Desperately clinging,
Clutching to one another
While tremors convulse through
Our just-each-other world.

For two red-rimmed inner eyes
Foretell the future fall.
Now you taste the scorpion's burden,
This jagged-razor yoke
Bound and biting on my heart.
The first day you laughed with me
I shouldered it lovingly.
Finally it starts to drag me under,
After six-months tainted love songs.

I see despite my clouded eyes
You're stronger than I thought,
And I, I am scared and feeble.
In the end the inner eyes will
Watch me fall,
And on that day I'll die,
I promise.

I'll plunge, I'll plummet,
I'll pray.
For descending the calypso which
I siren-sang you to,
I'll know your heart's decaying
Because of me.

I shall wish you a
Life without lifeline,
And pray you a
Love without deadline.
I shall yearn and
Bleed internally,
And softly slip away.

If you would wrap your arms around me,
Tell me that you love me,
And never let me go,
I'd leave my mind and live in love forever.

Do you believe in fairy tales?
I don't.

Snicker-Snack

Long ago, I buried my sword.
Never gave you my word,
But turned a blind eye while
My carcass relinquished quietly my soul.

I let the light rust into a blackened crust,
Kissed my lust and thrust it deep,
This two-tongued servant,
Into the heart of her trusting King.

My mouth spewed out loyalties,
Concurrently hands felled my comrades,
Strangled with knotted rope of
False oaths and a shell of purity.

Its time, enough, this one is done.
I reclaim my armor and shun my path,
Id just begun to turn and run when
Ankle shackles chewed so deep.

Butchery of allies, didn't know,
Only sadness in their eyes, and sighs
Of failure all my own, theirs to bear,
Unfair, and sown as saplings in my fertile heart.

Enough. Enough. This time I'm gone.
Bare my teeth and fare thee well.
Grind my heel, you bind me not,
I find my mind and wield a fated blade.

Victory you think you've won?
Tickled pink to see me run,
Knowing Ill be back again?
Lack of will still obliges her to sin.

One by one till done I cut these threads,
Twisted into shackles, now in shreds.
Tackle and I block your talk and blows.
This time it goes. Enough of my betrayal.

My champion is here to set me free,
I see that I breathed dead complacency,
Fear and realization lacking, detached treachery,
Fatal combination, contented self-murder, over.

Hard enough to turn my wrath,
Double-cross again, this loss of path,
Shards of hollow promises lie tossed aside
And lost to lies my eyes shift to a gentle enemy.