On Differences

Two Languages

0324.2025

I talk in storms

so the truth can rain.

You speak in safety,

and seek the storm’s shelter.

(I can’t hear whenever you call out.)

And my much is much too fast,

too alive to be placed neatly

into the quiet rooms

you live in.

You call it chaos—

but it’s just another truth,

burning and raw,

the way a soul burns

when it connects.

And yet,

I learned some stillness,

the measured replies,

your way of caring without words.

I learned to whisper when I wanted to sing.

I learned your language.

You wanted the echo,

but not my voice.

And now,

I sit with a lost companion—

two friends who made something,

but couldn’t read the same page

without translating every line.

Still,

I wish you peace,

in your quiet house

of quiet love.

And I’ll keep speaking storms

to those who understand

thunder can be beautiful.

m.c.f.

A New Perspective

❦ It’s funny how the things that seem difficult at the time can, in the end, become something to be thankful for.

The Good News

(0120.2025)

This evening, the lines are sketched traces of time,

The faces and names of stories once forgotten return,

Drawing my life, and unveiling who I’ve always been.

Thoughts guide me through grief’s distant, dark halls,

Now lit by loving mercy and quiet grace -

(Each wound, a whisper of wisdom’s gentle voice.)

The time I cried left deserts in my eyes -

But faces that once carved sadness in my heart

Have now awakened a voice, alive with gratitude.

And here I see the vow my soul once made

Before it wore its fragile, fleeting skin;

And how beloved’s hand has never strayed too far.

Each answer is a footstep on my path.

I have only to see the long walk in a new way.

m.c.f.

Instead Of…

Better To Do

0621.2024

Please don’t tend

Then yield to

The reign of sadness

Upon your back,

Or its weight -

And the shadow

Burying its dead

Between your breasts -

Don’t listen

Or look

(Because…)

What was it

Someone said?

I forget

Star gazing -

Behold this vast heavenly body

All Aflame in the sky’s night -

Behold its eyes watching back,

Its secret part of your blood -

Behold Beloved,

Behold this Love -

(That’s why)

m.f.