NaPoWriMo 2025 - day nineteen

now there is only silence
and the waiting.
 
three days. three days. three days.
 
where do we place the body?
how long?
 
i was never sure what to believe.
all those stories.
 
i told you again and again.
 
it’s not all the weeping;
the gifting of spices.
 
the echoes of the past.
 
the portents of the future.
 
all of us sitting together
quietly.

NaPoWriMo 2025 - day eighteen

1.      i don’t know if i have it in me. there are too many wounds. i want revenge too often. justice too rarely. i can’t wait any longer.

2.      i only have these words to bridge the gulf. i want you beside me. who you have wronged. stay here. or wait until my return. either way.

3.      i’m tired of you being alone. it is such a burden. is there another way of being a family. can we discover it together. there are promises.

4.      we have all been forsaken. i am tired of all the waiting. what is the use of hope. you left me here and i still reach for you. your voice. your absence.

5.      i am full of hunger and need. full of thirst and desire. everything i want is wrapped around pain. is that what was promised. find another way.

6.      nothing is ever finished. sometimes things are completed. i waited here beneath the tree and there was only darkness and rain. and silence.

7.      we will meet again. one day or another. it does not matter which. perhaps by a tomb or under the stars. with the sound of trumpets. perhaps, perhaps.

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.