SWALLOWED PAIN

I look at her tremendous girth
I know the truth.

She strains to move, to breathe, to live.
I know the truth.

Her deep, sad eyes are screaming!
I catch her thousand mile stare
and know what she is thinking.

I care, but do not dare to share
what were, but are no longer there:
My pain, my truth.

It is not food--but PAIN
that she has swallowed,
yet in vain.

She dreams of whom she was
inside this fortress she alone has built
to keep love out.

The love she knew bore lies and pain.
How could it be if truth is love
that any love is pain?

"Why me?" "Help me!" "Save me!"
Her silent prayers are deafening.
"Of truth and love, I know I am unworthy."

Her pleas, unfettered reach the heavens.
Through cloud and rain a silent answer sifts.
Her burdened spirit lifts.

LOVE, unconditional, fearless, free
at once embraced and understood.
Her vision, an enlightenment for TRUTH.

Empowered now by her own TRUTH.
Confronting the old lies of love,
Her life begins by ending swallowed pain.

AUTUMN DANCERS

The leaves outside my morning window
in pairs, they swiftly swing,
dancing to the melodies of time.

I watch them twirl and sway,
chosen partners with the breeze'
Their dance is a waltz of freedom.

Swirling and lifting, flying to Heaven.
I watch in stillness lest I disturb
the silent harmonies of the wind.

Only an invisible spectator peering
from my lofty theatre seat and listening,
I strain to hear the rhythms that they follow.

These private melodies of the wind
will pipe their timeless tunes for these
dancers caught in autumn's tight embrace.

The circle of their lush green lives
completes itself, now draped in all
the vibrant rainbows of their death.

This is their one and only waltz,
the last dance they will share,
for only in death can they dance.

Only in death do they fly.
Only in death are they free.
Only in death will they live.