Transcending Love

And from the corner of her mouth came a light
That in twilight’s princely skies once heralded
The dawn of the dark
The moment when my sky was draped
In robes of midnight blue
And bound with celestial chains of stars
That rolling clouds still tear asunder
Until we are where the heavens are
Unbroken and vast, the eternal canvas
Where my lonely eyes
And her wandering smile
Seek absolution for our sin.

She wasn't anything special
No flash, no glitz
No tiny dimples
Accenting her smile
Or long, golden
Flowing hair
But she had class
You can tell by the way
She looked in your eyes
When you spoke
Whether it was important
Or not
And it usually wasn't

She wasn't arrogant
Didn't expect every man
To fall at her feet
At least,
You don't think so
So if she did
She never showed it
And I guess that's enough

When she'd look at you
I mean,
Really look at you
Everything in the world
Just got narrowed down
Simplified
And all the answers
Were hidden deep
Within her playful eyes

She would cry sometimes
Every once in a while
When pains long forgotten
Caught up to her
And she'd look away
Sobbing softly, wiping
Unwanted tears away
Those days,
She doesn't want
Doesn't need
Your kind words

She dreams a lot
Little things, mostly
But she has one
Maybe two
That melt your heart
And when she speaks
You almost think
That maybe
She can change the world

She's not anything special
Not quite gorgeous
Pretty enough
To turn your head
Just a little
As you walk down the street
And when you pass her
You can turn and say
Softly, sincerely
That you've been waiting
A long, long time
For someone that's
Not that special

I’m listening still
For the sound of your voice
And looking for the shine of your smile
Dreaming about warm embraces
The smell of your hair, still soaked from the rain
Under an unfamiliar sky

Sometimes I wonder
If those furtive glances and languid sighs
Were all just created
In the recesses of a lonely mind
While the pain caused
By suppressed imagination
Still lies dormant behind my eyes.

It doesn’t even matter
If the things I feel were ever there
The distance between sleep and wake
Grows shorter with every passing day
And reality becomes unnecessary
When a man is left to his own devices

Sometimes I wonder
If I can ever escape
Being held down by those shimmering locks
Of long, soft hair
Still damp from the rain
That reminds me of days gone by.

vast skies surround me
while raindrops softly touch my cheek
the wind blows them down my face
like artificial tears
i can't truly cry
i hear my name
spoken by an unfamiliar voice
coming from a place
that i'm unable to reach

vast skies surround me
as blades of grass lie against my back
bent beneath my outstretched frame
like tiny little dreams
i can't truly realize
i see a face
pleading with soft brown eyes
staring from a window
that i'm unable to open

vast skies surround me
the cooling rain transforms to snow
they cover up my strong hands
like fragile bonds
i still can't escape from
i feel a warmth
from deep inside, lost long ago
that i struggle to release

The snow won't fall -
My time is frozen
In this awkward space
Between autumn and winter
Peace and war
Words and actions
Friendship and love
A place where letters
Handwritten in soft candlelight
Desperately express the shadows cast
By a heart that so frequently
Loses its way
Secret messages
Sealed by frozen teardrops
Released under a sky of
Bright silver stars
Sent along on silent streams of air
Through my own cloudy minjd
And to the woman
Who only acknowledges
All of my spirit
Half of my feelings
A quarter of my intentions
And none of my love.

Your face shined with
Filtered starlight
Falling through the wintry air
Of the heavens above
That watched as we connected
From distant shores to
One common destination
And before you could even form
That peppermint-sweet smile again
My heart melted.

What I need is the rain
The kind that comes
In lieu of snow
On a mild mid-December day
Falling swiftly, bouncing lightly
Off the canopy of a steel-tipped
Black umbrella
That twirls languidly
Propelled by a childlike wistfulness
That draws up from
Silver puddles
Through rainsoaked jeans
Long pea coats
Into my deliciously cold hands

What warmth flows
From springtime's scents
Passes through womaan
And man alike
Passes over me alone
So what I can't draw from
Warm embrace
I'll take from the hearts
Of pure white blossoms
That don't recoil from my touch
Until the peace stolen
By the cool, cruel April wind
Returns to me once more.

When you get some free time
Why don't we go back to that place
Where we grew up, through both deed and philosophy
And reminisce, back to sweltering days
Under the protective arms of
Old sycamores
And willows that we would wrap
All of our futures around
So we could watch them grow

Beads of sweat banished from my brow
But quickly replaced by the cool evening dew
Gathered on my golden hands
Trying to catch memories
Along with fireflies in the twilight

And your eyes, as I saw
Through the glow of that mason jar
Sparkled with something
Neither one of us could pin down
We thought it cruel not to set it free

Like you, i've grown weary
Of growing weary
The days of idleness,
So innocently enjoyed
Were but a season that faded
Just a bit before its time
So I was hoping, If you had the time
That you'd come back to me, with me
To that distant place,
Where we can both be dreamers again.

When I woke up
I was far beyond the light of yesterday
My hands reached for a pair of glasses
Carelessly left on their side
On the floor next to my pillow -
And I don't wear glasses.

What I did find,
peeking out from underneath my bed
I picked up;
Searched my desk for a silver marker and,
In the straightest, cleanest script
My elongated fingers can possibly produce
I wrote down 'Howard'
My grandfather's name
And next to it, both of my grandmothers -
Ruby and Amanda -
And my step-grandfather Adams as well
Because I realized,
In the shine of today's transcendant dawn
Since I couldn't show them all
How many steps their boy has taken
They can take them with me,
If only in shared blood, spirit,
And a list of names written
On a black boy's right shoe.

After tonight,
But before our fears
Gain the strength to overtake us
And sever the silver strand of affection
That forever ties our hearts together

After the day when we finally
Stop pretending
That everything is normal between us
When a lifetime’s worth of rising action
Says differently
But before we’re bound by consequence

After temptation
Draws my hands to rosy cheeks
And guides your eyes to mine once more
But before the questions raised in the afterglow

After I take your hand
Lean in and whisper
In your left ear
That I love you, and always have
Because the world will end
Before you say that you love me too.

I'm going to a place
Where I can be -
And i'd like to take you with me
We could conquer the fields of our own insecurities
And shatter this world of
Falsehoods and half-truths
Into pieces, into shards, fractured words
Because my hands are too fragile
For brick or mortar
And my legs are too stiff
To run the wind down
But if the world can be forged with words
Then even a coward as homely as I
Can construct miracles,
And memories made of pretense and participle.