ON RETURNING

Leave me your dear smile,

It'll warm the long journey away from you.

Say a soft word, I'll hold it in my heart,

To ward off the dark as I go alone through the night.

When I return, let me find you just the same as before.

Oh yes, and when I return, I'll give back the gifts you gave to me,

When we parted.

Tushie        1992

WORKING THINGS OUT

It's the silent word that baffles me, it always has.
Mind you, I've a store of  throw away smiles, I  inherited from my dad.
But it's the silent words that worry me, put a hole in my gut,
Words  I sense in the minds of some, they scratch, so deep they cut.

These unspoken ghosts smear cement, block ears and eyes,
Put concrete boots on feet, before they can even try,
To lift the weight of poverty, that has settled like a shroud,
Enveloped each and everyone, in their own black cloud.

But my need is huge, it will not go unmet,  and too, my love is great,
So bear with me for a  while, you may find you've an angel for a mate.
First let me clear the disaster, sweep dried, bitter memories away,
Like leaves blown about by an autumn wind, then, I'll be ready for my, summers day.

Tushie   1990

A FRIEND'S THOUGHTS

She Said
'You know, there are days I could lay down and die.
Could gladly think as I walk towards the cliff's edge,
Thank God its over. And yet,

Other days, I'm in heaven and all is well.
Music, poems, colors, flowers, the song of a bird, all fill me with joy.
And then there are the nights, and they are mine,
To live and love in whatever way I wish'.

She said,
'So far, the light has out run the darkness,
I do hope it remains that way'.

Tushie   1991

THE HYPNOTIST

You play me as brilliantly as your violin,
So why don't I hear the melody,
That once winged its way in pulsed vibrations?

Light as the stroke of the artist's brush,
Your finger tips press, tilt and draw the bow,
To curve sound in space.

So why do harmonies now grate?
And the once refined curves, now jar out only discord?
Play purely, harmonies and melodies, with,
sharp and jagged edges?

Tushie   1992

FLEXIBLE SPACE

There is no music in my heart,
I am alone again with me.
This small space contains all.
My finger tips barely brush the walls.

Like a possum to an apple,
I tempt my mind out of the steel cage.
I work diligently at the mind's steel trap.
But wait, the walls are not of steel, but rubber.
Slowly space stretches, and makes room for me.

Tushie   1992


FRIENDSHIP
I have a friend, a good friend.
We talk and laugh, and drink black coffee,
From small silver cups.

she came last week, and the week before.
We talked about Manet, looked at her books on art
It feels as if she never left. Yes a good friend.
Even so, when she drives away, I feel a strange need,
to check all my fingers and toes, just to make sure,
I'm still, all in one piece.

Tushie   1992

A BLAZING STAR

Petal by petal, bud by bud
Like a blazing star  she opened herself
Enveloped herself in the perfume of her satin petal skin.
Covered  each bloom in kisses, plucked,
And wrenched the breath from her own heart,
Then faded in the darkness and parched earth..

Tuhie   1992

DESTRUCTION

You deceived us daily, sprinkled, calculated clues over your lies,
Made a paste of your depression, spread its dull dry crust, over our lives.
Decided you were too ill to get up, to raise even a hand to help yourself out of of bed
With eyes closed, lips pressed tight, hands folded in stiff  repose, your game had a razor edge.

Below the surface, you paddled tirelessly, always improving your lot.
Chipping  away at each child,  willing to steal their very soul for any cheap and shallow plot.
But when bone is reached, and all is flayed, ugly and flawed,
And your children blunder blind into the world, through a wide flung open door,
What then desperate lady? what then? you once screeching, heartless shrew.
Because then, out of the many, you loved not even one, now not even one, can love you.


Trish   1991