NaPoWriMo 2025 - day seventeen

We have so many commandments
already. Make your lists.
Choose your favourites. Certainly,
no killing. No stealing.
Let people keep the things they love,
lest there be fire and thunder.
Lest there be earthquakes.
 
We were always bound to fail.
How to say sorry; how to bend our shame.
Let me shave my head.
Let me shave my beard.
Let me come before you
naked and afraid, or
simply face to face.
 
Let us wear white robes,
impractical as they may be.
We’ve been called to a feast:
bread and wine, oil and lamb.
Wash your feet and sit beside me.
Tell me the old stories.
Peel back the layers
and open up my ears.
My cheek on your chest.
My hand in your hand.
Only the one command.

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day sixteen

How many times I’ve been a spy.
In the houses of lepers. In houses
where women wash feet with tears.
Where perfumes fill the air, and
we speak of funerals and goodbyes.
You tried to buy me with money
but my heart was already sold.
We all have secrets we carry with us.
Sometimes we bury them in the yard.
Sometimes in the back of the sock drawer.
Inside a book. An old pair of shoes.
I burn the incense. Sit in silence.
I play my role. I wear the right clothes.
I keep saying goodbye.
I’m not sure what that‘s worth.

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day fifteen

And then there are
those moments when
talking is so easy
you forget how little
you really know about
anyone unless they
reveal themselves.
 
So reveal yourself
to me once more,
tell me what you know
about the things we forget
amidst all the talking.
It’s those moments
we’re looking for. 

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