friends or lovers

A friendship, however hard it tries,

Will always be romantic.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the friendship,

Gently it goes

the injured bee

My head stings
says the injured bee
to the hand that hit her

Desolate rain

Desolate  rain

A menacing fox walks

covered by a box

The horses of Bruges

The horses of Bruges
tell a long story
of a lost princess who chased the geese

Falfafel of those who left

The falafel of those who left
is richer with their loss
than it is with olive oil

rocks, bellies

Originality is keeping space
between the pebbles
knowing that dirt can creep under the belly

Smells like Christmas

It smells like Christmas in my kitchen,
smells like the time I stopped
in the heart of the house

right in the middle like a clot
not moving nor let anyone move
to make Christmas over cold stoves

here is a list of things you need for cake
that serves 6, realistically
even if you are on your own:

* peeled apples
* 3/4 sugar
* flour
* cinnamon
* nutmeg
* salt (to taste)

I stand on a flat corner
kneading the flour
needing a listening ear

I stand in the corner
in my house,
shaking like a belly dancer after a long show
cupping powdered sugar to an empty heart

Question to the wind

What is it like to kiss you
I wondered
asking the wind

time and this body

Age is a reference
to the relation you have
with a timely body:
ailing, wailing, slowly failing.

even in tea

The tea here has your name
so I no longer drink it
dark, tall and handsome
the glass in my hand is empty

birth and baptism

you sing about baptism before birth
how glorious, it is
the water

Rock heavy

my biggest fear
is that each time I harden
I will turn into a rock

Fear and fire

Like a wildfire, it will eat up with its arms
all the sides of yourself you were keeping safe
this fear

When I'm sick

When I'm sick
my mind is at its sharpest in math

calculating distances without touching
 on the times I shivered like a leaf

near the black board with the thought
that a pit of numbers will take me down

my dreams are different now
they are closer to touch

salty on my tongue
yet it remains a sharp brain in math

and a poor lung.

question on origin, once more

I have once asked earth
am I from you?
when I do not have dirt in my hair

it laughed,
all I could know is that
I don't not know for sure

where I descended from
an earth or a sky
or probably a bit of them both.

Drifting in the wrong waters

How many times, would I have had to die
because my ship drifted to where I didn't ask

tornado at sea,
I, am the difficult storm ahead

how many have to go, so I could feel
the wind as a brother

on my neck,
because my ship drifted to the wrong waters

Freedom is restricted

close your mouth
put tape over its corners

tie your legs together
with a stone, send it down a lake

put your hands to other use
than typing on a keyboard

avert your eyes
from areas marked with "caution"

cut all buddings of feather
growing between your shoulders

this is natural, a redefinition
of you being free to be restricted too.

too much excitement is not good for women

because the rational cannot compete with the tender 

because the excepted cannot grant way for those unable to beat misery 

with the back of their hands 

because like little glitter you cannot box smiles 

because there are things needed at the house 

because the washing up will stay unwashed 

the dishes dirty, the kids unfed

because it replaces the heart with a butterfly 

because it is not acceptable 

because it preludes to bad things 

because it requires energy 

too much excitement is not good for women.  

Look at the birds flying south

Pointing to the birds in the sky you said 

look at the birds flying south 

an act of migration 

I said, it was a dance 

a murmuration,

an act of togetherness 

into an open sky, 

into the sunset the birds 

move together 

next to me, you were silent 

your eyes on the horizon 

its beautiful, you whisper 

I'll think of birds now 

of glorious sunsets 

when I think that you left

fifteen minutes after the birds flew

all that's broken

a constant need of repetition
they call you obstinate
for trying to fix all that's broken