Rest Stop

Kaw your eyes are so blue
blue like the ocean
where you fly over
and drop an olive branch
that plants a seed
that grows a tree
for all the Caws
to rest on the branches
and feast on olives
during their flight
across the sea

~Jenny

The Artist

I would like to learn
how to tenderly
lay out the images
drawing the figures
gently
with loose
but attentive hand
lovingly tracing the figures
and objects
as if I knew them
and create life in them
on the canvas
to trace their hair
and fill it in with jet black
put a sparkle in the eye
a story to the way
they hold their hand
give them a nice table
or couch
to sit on
for eternity

~Jenny

Enough

A few cigarettes
a place to live
a job
a few beers
homemade food
in the belly
people to love
a car
some dreams
clean sheets
clean home
air freshener
nature
dogs
cats
changing seasons
holidays
hugs
pats on the back
it’s enough

~Jenny

A Little Bit of Everything

"Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
— Gibran Khalil Gibran (The Prophet)

The coffee tasted different this morning
with it’s warmth and sweetness
the smells were different too
and recalled many mornings
waking on my own
there is beauty in both togetherness
and separateness
but oh how to find the balance
and quell the fears
and not step on feelings
driving in Mercedes
with the soft lull
of engine
Natalie Merchant serenades me
on my way to a place this morning
I have obligations
and almost did not make it
but after a shower
and a cup of wakefulness
and comfort
I feel magically recharged
On my station
there are comedies, dramas,
action, tragedies
we are on 24/7
with the occasional
boring commercials
in between
but each show does not go on
forever
If you don't like it
change the channel

~Jenny

Kashmir

I am running out of make-up remover

I need more progesterone cream

I would like to cook a shepard's pie

on Sunday

what am I going to do about all these bills

silly thoughts

compared to the looks on their faces

put a veil

over my head

and send me to Kashmir

 it could be my father

yelling for help

staring back at me

my mother holding on

my brother afraid

or I could be the father

or the mother

or the brother

there are always those 

in the world

at any given moment

who need to borrow a heart

a prayer

and some compassion.

~Jenny

On Guard

There is something out there
that would love to see me fail
but I have an understanding with the soul
and do not intend to fail her again
I have an appointment with destiny
I have reservations being held
for the best of the best
and those he sends through my door
with smiling faces
and big hearts
to match those he is giving me
there is no room for darkness
and I must diligently guard my door
from even the tiniest black mist
that may slide under the crack
if I entertain those again
who do not necessarily mean harm
but could so subtly
undermine the whole operation
if given enough rope
one thread at a time
to hang me

~Jenny

St. Francis And The Sow

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow. 

by Galway Kinnell