i am afraid.
the mind holds
images
like fresh paint
on
thick canvas;
colors fade through
the years
but the pattern
constantly remains
and i am afraid.
memories build in
stacks,
car doors open
to bitter air
and in my mind
you are gone
(in my mind, this is how you died)
but i know
this is not so
for you
are still here
beside me
and this memory
plays me a
fool
whilst i sleep
and i am still afraid.
familiar walls remember
everything,
they, too, play
tricks
with the pictures
in the stacks
like every brilliant
line
in your face
(memorized)
even though you
are far away
the towers fell
(so long ago)
and the towers are
still falling
inside of my
mind
and i will always be afraid.
~ A. L. Stippich
whispers
tonight i whispered goodbye on the wind; it danced across the keys of an untuned piano, and carried through an opening door, and slivered through a black, lace shawl, and whistled through the leaves of the tallest tree, and tumbled across shards of broken glass, and dove into the violent sea, and was swallowed by the dark before it could reach you tonight i whispered goodbye on the wind, a goodbye that never came ~ A. L. Stippich
melancholy
the sun is awake!
curtains pulled to a shallow
sea
the waves begin
to stir
with a restless
ache
the sun has
stolen me,
how to make them
understand
that i am fear's
permanent reside
words are not
thoughts
nor thoughts
words;
fragments
and
slivers
the world is in motion,
in tune with the
sea,
but my fists
remain firm
in the
sand
(even a hole can
play house
to a
void)
melancholia
my lover, my infinite
solitude
hold me fast in
your arms;
the iron gates
to my
eternal prison
~ A. L. Stippich
star gazer
I sat on the edge of a star today (head in the sand, feet in the tide), Watching pieces of dead earth tap the edge of the moon from an ever ripening sea in the Sky ~ A. L. Stippich
Life at the Burrow 