Bon Voyage

Friends join for the Bon Voyage

A quarter past three

Christmasy colored decoupage

Cut-out varnished memory

Uncommonly calm

Despite the journey ahead

Singing an unsung song

Baggage stowed overhead

This Spring

Brightest reds, deep purples, pink against green

Living and thriving effortlessly

Wind gently passing through

Taking sunny day's heat away

Families with only subtle differences

A garden of them with no master

Cohabiting yet abiding common law

Surviving soundly with one another

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder

But beauty is deceiving to the unlearned

For weeds grow just as easily

Insidious and comfortable

Roots tie these lesser beauties

Ever stronger to the ground

Their presence multiplies quick

Dull, yellow, and deceiving

Honey bees have no need for their bloom

Weeds exist for themselves

Their milky blood hoards water

Gangly limbs usurping water and light.

I may look upon this garden

And see only flowers

Ignoring the weeds, forgetting their treachery

To enjoy what is only beautiful

Convinced that all things must end eventually

Leave the weeds amongst the flowers

Wheat and chaff amongst sheep and goats

In this garden with no master

I will not water this garden

The soil will remain unturned

And this beautiful Spring garden

Will still remain

But these weeds pull at me

Mocking my ignorance

Flaunting their blooms and spreading their seed

Causing my heart to well for what beauty may be lost

For I know a weed from a flower

Their dry hides and lofty blooms

Flying from other untended gardens

Forgotten lawns trampled under foot

My eyes are open towards this garden

The weeds amongst the flowers

Where once someone placed each plant

Weeds have crept in between and behind

Sons and daughters of neglect and happenstance

They bow below their sturdy patriarchs

Without care for their surroundings

Taking what the flowers must share

Weeds have no alliance and only independence

Would their blooms be gathered together

They may convince any layman of their beauty

Yet they live unto themselves

Forcefully grabbing the trunk of the weed

It gives all of its tail as a slinky reptile it escapes underground

Pull as I may the roots are deep and the roots are strong

This masterless garden looks better for now

Weddings

There are a few things in life to me that seem like unnecessary necessities. Perhaps these rituals or stepping stones once had a context or a deeper cultural relevance, but in my mind they seem due for a freshening-up.  Marriage, home ownership, retirement all seem like the glory of a time past. A simpler time or perhaps a time with less conveniences and less options. The modern single can live successfully on their own, but doesn't marriage sound so appealing? 

Me

What will it take to raise the stakes
To release my heart out to the banks
To dive deep in to sweet love's lake
I stop at the shore to contemplate

For all that you are to me
Your eyes make me see
But strangely enough
It is my own eyes that set me free

Full-knowing my doubt and fear
Yet seeing my own face crystal clear
Fearful, dreading, even more
Of love I have never seen before

Not different to you this smile I bring
But to me it is sharp, calm, and comforting
For I above all know the looks of my face
Now blissfully changed and reflecting your grace