Did you ever see lightning dance across the sky
Painting tiger stripes on cloudy canvas

Words are swelling seas
And each message living in them
Is a creature of water or sky.

Just as surely as you are not Cinderella,
You cannot stop the coming of midnight.

I could spend my whole life chasing the end,
For few things are more alluring than happily ever after,
And no story has ever begun that way.

How lovely am I,
Speaking words that you gave me?
How lovely am I,
Saying things that you like?

Does my smile reach my eyes?
Does it tell the truth,
Or does it tell a lie?

You, Oh Lord, with only a word
Can make what was crushed become whole again
You, Oh Lord, with only a breath
Can breathe life into what was dead

I swallow it, let it sear my bones
And scorch my soul
And fill my lungs like smoke
Quietly I burn and choke

Tell me, what is it like to hold so many secrets?
Do your four walls talk amongst themselves in my absence?

Pour me a cup of sadness
Dignified like a small-town Sherriff brandishing his gun
Sweet like a southern belle when her courtship has begun

But Lord I am unready
To leave this world behind
I waiver here, unsteady
And reaching for more time

Thank you for taking all the dollars I paid
And giving me mermaid after mermaid

Three for the house
One for the old lock
One for new
One for the back door that’s been painted blue

Creamsicle
Sherbert
Fresh-squeezed juice
Orange I love everything but you

Scribbled sloppily on a scrawny scrap of loose-leaf
Name, number, new place, nerd has written “call me”