Heart on My Sleeve?
I wanted to put my heart
On the cuff of my sleeve,
But there wasn’t one.
I’ve no shirt today,
No sleeves to be found
How will you read me plain?
Here take my heart
I’ll let you keep it
Please hold it true.
Cherish it with joy
Keep it safe,
Put it in your pocket.
And if you say
“I’ve no pocket,
Or even pants to speak of.”
Then hold it in your mind,
As naked both of us,
Are already one.
– Vagabond Prophet
Tag: spilled writing
Unenlightening
I can hear it off the eaves
Drip drip drip.
Distant coyotes,
Yip yip yip.
The darkness and fog
Combine and decide,
Unenlightening.
Tonight we unenlighten.
The rain comes quicker
And thicker than before,
Making soil so fertile
As to be barren.
One dewy drop
Says to another,
“We’re so heavy, full of wet,
Tonight let’s unenlighten.”
That’s when I start to feel,
Along with tobacco smoke
Swirling in my mind,
I’m being unenlightened.
Flipping through your pages
Traditions get unraveled.
With your gold gilded edges,
The unenlightening is frightening.
Contradicting every wisdom
That I’ve ever known.
You put your trust in vagrants,
Rather than royalty.
You talked to strangers
Befriended cheats,
Trusted prostitutes,
Beguiling in the streets.
So I’ll do it I’ll commit,
To break the mold,
To be an idiot,
To become unenlightened.
Rain’s just pouring now,
I’ve just learned up is down,
Meaning we’re all drowning.
I’m the only one who knows.
Thank God for unenlightening.
– Vagabond Prophet
Little Knots
Does your faith evaporate
Like water
On a hot sidewalk?
And children trample
On the remnant of your hopes.
What then?
Do you still believe?
When your heart
Undoes its rivets,
To let itself topple
Like a rookie jenga match.
Does your faith endure
The torrent of survival,
The steady drip of living.
Can it survive a head wound?
Or being trapped in a storm
With no way home?
It could be different you know,
You could let him carry you,
And work out the little knots in your soul.
Just know when your faith
In him is shaken,
His in you is not.
– Vagabond Prophet
Scuffed
When grief fits perfectly
Like an old pair of jeans
Scuffed at the knees
Knowing every curve.
Take it all off
Come to bed darling
So I can hold you
And know every curve.
– Vagabond Prophet
Ear Lobes
Mountains look like ear lobes
All tufted with white
Like an old man but bigger.
Maybe that’s why
They say old men are wise,
If you climb to the heights
Of those tufts of white
You’re bound to find some perspective.
– Vagabond Prophet
Solitary Refinement Chapter 29
Dear Joshua April 26th 2018
It’s official I’m the worst father ever. Alister’s birthday was two months ago and I forgot! I was so busy looking over my shoulder and worried about hidden intentions from every face I pass I forgot my own sons birthday! Can you believe that? I have so much credit from work now I could have gotten him a whole stack of books, if Liz would let him have it of course. I feel like such shit that I did that, I’ve been sweating every minute of every day on account of the fear I feel, like it’s in my blood, or in my eyes. That cave entrance again, every mirror I look at. Everything I’ve been going through, all the weight I’ve lost and how scrawny and pale and bloodshot I’ve become doesn’t excuse this. What can I do now though, hope Alister forgives me? I don’t doubt he will, he knows by now I’m not reachable to him. As far as hoping Liz forgives me for forgetting it, I guess I can just add it to the damn pile of things I hope she one day forgives me for.
At least I’m still alive, I haven’t slept a wink since the night he first came at me. Every day at breakfast lunch and dinner he sits across from me now. If I get up to move he just follows. He looks me straight in the eyes as he eats his food. He ends every such time with a single word, “Tonight.”
Tonight?! Tonight what? Like I don’t know. He’s been doing this for a week, knowing I’m not sleeping. Sadistic bastard just wants to see me squirm. The things I’ve been brainstorming are insane, different ways to kill someone with a knife. I swiped another one from the kitchen. I didn’t bother with a broken one but rather a nice big sharp one. I just grabbed it when the instructor wasn’t looking. I keep it under my pillow now in case Kal takes the first knife, the one he met the other night.
Trevor too, shit Trevor. Yesterday he told me he won’t be able to babysit me anymore. I ignored the offense of the statement and simply asked him why.
“I don’t want to, I just don’t want to. Protect yourself you wimp.”
And when I pleaded him to keep me safe from Kal and told him what had happened he just backhanded me hard. I’ve got a real nice bruise on my right cheek now.
Can you come visit me? I’ve noticed the weather is crazy but could you try? I saw from the yard that some trees out by the road had fallen over by the wind and that the clouds looked pretty sinister. It might be the last chance you get I have no idea what the future holds but I know the face of a friend would be a welcome site.
A.N. So close! Leave me some words please!
Baby Steps
Everywhere I go
I see grown ass men
Taking baby steps
To avoid collisions
With their decisions.
– Vagabond Prophet
New Growth
Let us go away
To the gutters of decay
See what we can find
To inspire new growth.
I’ve got sadness
Let’s turn into gladness,
And maybe this doubt
Will transform into faith.
I’ve got rage
Locked inside a cage
Maybe we can change it
Into something kinder.
That’s just what you do
The impossible it’s true,
It’s how this lump of dust
Is breathing at all.
– Vagabond Prophet
Waiting
Nose cold as glass
Sidewalk irridescent
Gardens crystalizing
I hope this bus is on time.
– Vagabond Prophet
Winter Sun
Winter sun burning brightly,
Effervescent rays
Tickling my nose.
Hot and cold
Simultaneously,
I don’t know how to feel.
Feels warm on my face,
My bones however feel cold
My ears are red like cherries.
Even this points to you,
You give what we need,
Not what we want.
– Vagabond Prophet
– I love winter, a lot.