NaPoWriMo 2025 - day thirteen

the drive was long
the evening quiet
 
the room empty
 
i keep reading
the same pages
i keep writing
the same lines
 
i hear people
walk the halls
 
though it is late
 
how strange it is
to be alone
in this room
away from home

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day twelve

we spent the evening
speaking of leaving
 
we spoke of need
how we find healing
 
the roles we play
with families and lovers
 
how we carry our wounds
and wound each other
 
how we wend our way
through our past
 
how we so often blunder
into our future
 
how we bury our shame
how we carry ourselves
 
how we are carried
through the moment
 
by a kind word,
a warm embrace 

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day eleven

unless
unless unless unless
 
if it be not that
 
we just keep repeating
the words
 
as if it’s an incantation
 
as if it can protect us
 
as if we could get on our knees
and pray everything away
 
unless
unless unless unless
 
we could make excuses
we could tell ourselves the lies
 
we could get on our knees
make supplication
 
let it be this
 
let us be prisoners

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day ten

We didn’t almost have it all after all.
When the children left we had to rediscover ourselves.
I suggested birdwatching.
You suggested cross-country skiing.
How easily we fall into distraction.
It’s too easy to always blame our phones.
We can’t always lose ourselves to pleasure.
At some point the hard work begins.
The direct and plain work of devotion:
with my body I thee worship.
I suggested we kiss more often.
You suggested we take more walks.
We find new ways to empty or fill the days.
We measure our reserve and return to it.
Full of patience or resignation or hope.
The hidden and dislocated things.
Whispering around the edges of our waking.
How they are fragile, broken with just a sound.
I suggested there should be more poetry.
You suggested there were already too many words.

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day nine

i asked a question
you would not answer

(it’s none of your business)

(you said)

you asked a question
i would not answer

(how is that your business)

(i said)

i asked a question
i would not answer

(that’s my business)

(and?)

you asked a question
you would not answer

(that’s your business)

(even so)

(turnabout’s fair play)
(i said)

you would not answer

a question you asked

(i don’t trust you. yet)
(you said)

i would not answer

a question i asked

(we need some secrets)
(i said)

i would not answer

a question you asked

(that’s one's still fresh)
(i said)

you would not answer

a question i asked

(we are all wounded)
(you said)