Danse Haiku: Act XV

Scene 1

Soft sand underfoot

Conch shell tells its secret

Hum of the ocean

Scene 2

Whistles from the stove

Kettle shouts out humidity

Time to make the tea

Scene 3

Starfish on seashore

Scent of coffee in the breeze

A sign o' the times

For Love’s Sake

I give my love through joy and ache

Not for return — for love’s own sake

No turn of others bends my way

The light I guard will not decay

Though some may take yet cannot see

I still walk on with empathy

I Am the Lightning

Copper

On my tongue

I spit it out

No more swallowed pennies

No more making change out of myself

So others can buy their reflection

No more

The storm

Behind my eyelids stays awake

But now it’s mine to call

I let it crack

Let the lightning

Outline their shadows

In perfect detail

No hiding behind sugar voices

No masquerade in satin smiles

No masks at all

Their smoke curls toward me—

I watch it writhe in the air

But it burns to nothing

Before it reaches bone

Every word

They try to lace with poison

Hits the salt in my blood

And dies, hissing

Like oil dropped in fire

They once thought

I was an ocean

Turns out—

I am the tide

I decide who docks

I decide when to pull back

I decide when to leave their ships

Stranded on dry sand

Barnacles choking in the air

I decide

I decide

Sweet talk from glass teeth?

I hear the strain in every syllable

I hear the break where the lie leaks out

Their perfume stinks of need

Their eyes glitter with desperation

They reach for keys

To doors that no longer exist

Their ghosts knock in the night

I tell them: wrong address

Gnawing hunger for reflection

I do not feed it anymore

I carry my own mirror now

Polished with truth

And it will not flatter them

I see the empty theater

I see the audience was only me

And I have stood up

Walked out

Grief crescents

Under my nails—

Cleaned away

Borrowed pain—

Returned to sender

I have no intention

Of being their whetstone

Walls stand now

Stone on stone

Mortar mixed with something

Harder than compassion:

Discernment

My softness is not weakness

It is the river that carves mountains

It is the force that wears down steel

Inside me

That ember

Is no longer small

I can stand in the riptide

And not be moved

I can watch the sky darken

And not fear the lightning

Because I am the lightning

I am the lightning

I am the

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Good Medicine

Joy paints the heart in colors clear

Laughter mends what’s cracked by fear

Sorrow pulls with heavy chain

Mirth revives and heals the pain

Sure and Sound

Repay no wrong with cruel return

Let wisdom lead where passions burn

When harshness rises like a wave

Respond with strength that will not cave

Hold fast to good though wild winds howl

Plant truth where bitterness might prowl

Pursue the peace that holds its ground

A quiet force, both sure and sound