the heart laid bare

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VERBAL PORTRAIT OF A CAT OWNER
Unanswered
Bedtime
the one time
prisoner
iris
adore
delicate
Untitled 10
never him
lockdown
procrastinating
advice to the imaginary man of my hypothetical dreams
the tenth month
purple hearts
vigil
a glossary of terms
a week forever ago
The sixteenth
the curse
Under seige
Beyond the blues
Introspect
Balloon
push
a strange distance
SWIMMING ALWAYS DOWNWARD
A ONCE-FAMILIAR LANDSCAPE
No Apology
the thunder
tinder
critical shortage
the sky we thought we knew
CIRCA SOLEM
almanac
baby
dearest orlando
FIVE MONTHS
A LETTER TO THE UNDESERVING
cactus heart
would we
the fall of giants
paradise lost
Dad
after you've gone
time
a smile from the eyes
trepidation
why so cold
fix this
swallow me
untitled 8
insular
cry alone
robin
quicksand
laces
D.I.S.C.
stripped
waving goodbye
your open eyes
enemy within
mortal
untitled 4
sleepless
OUTSIDER
untitled 9
come dream with me
in the face of adversity
one word
the dark of the night
untouchable
one and one makes two
you burn me
see me
this shaken core
my lover
helen
my room
his words
foolish
rita
chalk drawings
the longest night
stupid skeleton
CLOTHES MAKETH
FIRST LASTS
STELLAR
TODAY
I WATCHED A MAN DIE TODAY
THREE WEEKS
this slippery slope
untitled 5
Arrows
First Kiss
The Talk Of Love
Nicotine
Blackout

come dream with me

All those nights she stared out through the bars on her window,
Smiling at pictures only she could see.
Moving to the rhythm of a dance that others frown puzzled upon
And wave their limbs in graceless imitation.
 
In the cold, the clear, the dark of evening,
All manner of creatures come to life under her fingertips,
The fantasy given form and placed on the tabletop
To be admired and embodied and to sing just for her.
The things that creep along the edge of reason have sidled their eerie way
Out of the dark alleys of her imagination.
She hides from the light as though afraid it would burn.
 
Words and ink and paint and clay all fall beneath the broad sweeps of her sword
As she strides like a warrior cleaving them before her,
Littering the ground with art in her wake.
 
Smoke curls from her hundredth forgotten cigarette like a lasso
Drifting skyward to draw the night in tightly and prevent the sun from rising.
No longer mindful of her surroundings she sits,
Wearing her nudity like fine silk.
She is pulled, breathless, this way and that in the current of nascent energy that has brought her here.
Grasping for the brush or pen,
Eyes closed,
She strains to hear the soundless whisper of the thousand tiny faces she has made...
 
“Come dream with me...”

© mjc 19 September 2013

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Biography

Daughter, sister, aunt, godmother, friend; self-confessed hermit, confirmed cat person, sporadic baker, irreformable yarncrafter, voracious reader; occasional wit, voluble shower vocalist, frequent sacrifice on the altar of brain-to-mouth filter fails, unrepentant purveyor of puns and dad jokes, writer and poet.

I have always lived by the theory that no matter what you do for a living - if you are compelled to write, if you wake up in the night to scrawl the contents of your dreams on a notebook beside the bed, if no event in your life seems complete without you recording it, if you are drawn to comment upon the world - then you are a writer.

These are my words.