Thoughts Not Mine

“If it don’t do what I want it to do, then I’m gonna make it do something I like.”

-Laverne Brackens

“When you use scraps you always get a surprise.”

-Kate Brown

Quotes taken from an art exhibit of African-American quilts at the Figge art museum in Davenport, Iowa, December of 2006

Haiku

Mourning dove

Announces morning

I rise

-07/20/2007

Haiku

Cicada sings

Ancient voice floating

A heart adrift

-07/20/2007

Tanka

Who are you to me?

The One, cloaked in mystery

Unknown and unshown

My voice is met with silence

I am only forsaken

Carrying Your Ghost #15

Thirteen years

Eight months

Fourteen days

And I am

Still here

With this

Little notebook

And this

Ink black pen

And I still

Don’t know

Why

But the words

Keep coming

Spilling out of

Me

Like the contents

Of a torn

And ripped

Open bag

They fall

And litter

This page

With their

Definitions

And their meanings

And their

Insinuations

And I don’t

Know

What to do

But give them

To you

And hope that

Somehow

We can make

Sense

Of what happened

To you

And what happened

To me

And all these things

Left

In between

-07/30/2007

Carrying Your Ghost #14

Forgotten words

And all the

Things I

Could have

Should have

Said

They come back

To me

During these

Dark nights

Like whispers

Under

Starlight

But it’s not

What I

Would have said

That hurts

The most

But

Knowing how

Different

Things could have

Should have

Been

If I

Had only

Been there

To listen

Lucky Number 13 - About Carrying Your Ghost

So, thirteen of these strange little forays into my thoughts about a long lost friend.  I thought that I would take a moment to clarify a couple of things.  I did not set out to write a series of poems, or at least, not this one.  I never consciously or purposefully decided that I should try to write a poem a day on this subject.  I have not determined that I should do this for any set length of time or duration.  This little set of poems was completely spontaneous; it just sort of snuck up on me and took hold.  Such is the way of the mysterious muse.  Sometimes you just have to accept the call, take up pen and paper, and follow it wherever it leads.  I cannot tell you how long this will last, as I really have no idea.  Tomorrow there may be another, or maybe not, that’s the truth of it.  At this very moment, I am still not sure what I am even getting out of these poems.  I do hope that, if you are reading these, you might find something personal in them, something you can take with you, and maybe by doing so, I will have honored the memory of the ghost that I still carry.  And maybe, that alone, is reason enough to write them.

Thanks for reading,

Zero Anon  -07/29/2007

Carrying Your Ghost #13

I’m too tired

To write

Anything

To you

Not today

Not tonight

It’s just been

A busy day

You understand

Right?

I mean

What with the

Moving

And then the

Wedding

You understand

Right?

I can’t be

Expected

To pour out

My soul

On paper

Every single day

Just so I

Can keep trying

To figure out

How to

Go on

Carrying your

Ghost

I mean

You do

Understand

Right?

-07/28/2007

Tanka

Never coming back

To the people we once were

Only memories

The phantoms of our lives past

We are just ghosts, out of time

-01/20/2008

Free Verse - By Reservation Only

Does it make you

Feel good?

Stealing from

Elders

The only ones

Who care

If you

Live or die?

And what

Of our

Ancestors?

Whose blood

Still stains

This land

Red

This is how

You honor

Their memory?

Their sacrifice?

Their souls?

By proving

All the

Slanders

That I

Endured

When I

Was your

Age?

-07/24/2007