Unsafe

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Your aggravated aggressive agitations
Make alarm bells clang in my body
Danger!
Danger!
Hide!
As my stomach churns
And my blood pressure rises
I'm exhausted from near-constant hypervigilance
You may not be angry at me
I may not be the cause
But I'm in the blast radius
I'm in the radiation zone
Perfect collateral damage
Victim of your salted earth strategy
Or perhaps your target practice
I am not your Linus blanket
I am not your heavy bag
But you would have me be those things
Often in rapid succession
Leaving my nerves discordantly vibrating beneath my skin

-gws

Please Forgive My Silence

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Please forgive my silence
It is not easy to converse
When I don't have much to say
Not for want of company
But for lack of breath to speak
I have been gasping lately
In pain
In tears
In prayer
Gasping for air in a chest too tight
On days when getting up takes
All my might
All my fight
Please forgive my silence
My burdens are so much to bare
I hold myself too tightly wound
For fear of shaking into pieces
And if I set my voice free
I worry what will become of me

-gws

The Best Kind of Foreplay

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Sit with me
Speak to me of
Philosophy
Art
Spirituality
Poetry
Sexuality

Share with me the
Beauty of your experience
The intricacies of your dreams
Tell me how lemons taste to you
Describe to me the complexity of scent and flavor
Of your whiskey
Invite my deepest curiosities
My darkest dreams and desires
To sit at your table
As you dine upon every thought
Savoring each exchange
Like a finely crafted meal
And I will do the same

Join me in unguarded honesty
Lose yourself in focused curiosity
Paint my soul with meaningful words
Excite me by challenging my beliefs
Without burning them in shame
Or drowning them in judgement

Stay here with me
Suspended in the silken web
We have woven between
Infinite synchronized heartbeats
We have crafted a spell from
Two souls orbiting each other
Do not let it end
Until the sun greets the world anew

Watch my lips as I speak
With your eyes burning with hunger
I will meet you on that threshold
Captivated by your mouth
As you share your inner self
In a verbal strip tease
I drop the last of my pretense
At your feet and wonder if you noticed
Now the little distance between us feels too far
I am all too aware of my body's pull toward yours
It feels inevitable and I know you feel it too
The spark of radiant connection that captures us

Words slow then stop
Only body language remains
Plump lips
Flushed skin
Fluttering lashes
Subtle smiles
Unbreakable eye contact
Goosebumps
And all from a conversation
The best kind of foreplay

-gws


Heroes and Villains

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I am not the author of your story
As much as that saddens me to admit
You are the wordsmith of your tale
You write yourself as the hero of your own journey
Despite being so often the villain of mine
But understanding how you see your world
Understanding that you can be none other
Than the hero of your pages
Helps me gain perspective into why
You write me as the arch-villain of your narrative

There is no mirror in your story
You cannot see yourself
And as if bespelled
You see only monsters and
Enemies in every shadow
My pages would describe the cause
As a self-afflicted curse
Yours would imply the question
Are villains born or made?
For you would say you are
The result of what others made you
Be you hero or villain
You are forever alone
Shadowboxing every perceived threat
And drawing blood from everyone
Who gets too close for too long
Blinded by pain and unable to
See that the one causing
The most pain for you is you
Like a manifested destiny
It becomes so

As our books sit side by side on the shelf
Yours a story of never ending rage, war, and loss
Mine becomes a story of surrender, retreat, and release
For I am removing myself from your story
It is time to make myself the hero of my own
And write the closing of this chapter
For I can feel the peace and love I deserve
Waiting for me in the next chapters of my life
I am ready to transform my story
Into the self-love story I have long deserved
I hope you find your happy ending
I write a magic wish for that
Into my final paragraph
Of our chapter in my book
Then turn the page to my tabula rasa
Full of potential and possibilities
And the freedom to write my future
As rich and joyful as I can imagine it

-gws

Words Have Power

A rewrite of a 2015 poem
Words have power
They are thoughts made manifest
And loosed into the world

They are fragile crepe paper ghosts
Spoken softly to breathe thoughts to life

They are shining lights
Spoken with bold love and given as gifts

They are a clarion bell call
Spoken with volume, power, and purpose

They are truth and belief
And love made real

Words have power
They are thought made manifest
And loosed into the world

They are knife edges
Spoken to cut the soul

They are blunt force
Spoken to crush and wind

They are daggers
Spoken to pierce the heart

They are lashing whips
Spoken to welt and sting and scar

They are hurt and anger
And resentment made real

Words have power
They are thought made manifest
And loosed into the world

Beware how you manifest your
Intentions into the world
The heat of passionate anger
Can turn language into fists that leave bruises
That cannot be seen and may never heal

Beware how you manifest your
Intentions into the world
Regret is a bitter friend
For what is said cannot be unsaid or unheard

Beware how you manifest your
Intentions into the world
Think before you speak and
Hold your tongue until you possess
A calmer mind and kinder words

Words have power
They are thought made manifest
And loosed into the world

-gws

Daughter of Darkness and Fire

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This is my season
The season Persephone returns to the underworld
To take up her night-sky crown
A season where darkness rules
And pomegranate seeds glisten
Like ruby drops of blood
Across a dark and mossy earth
A season where candlelight entwines with shadow
And long nights lay steeped in vivid dreaming

In this season I embrace my own darkness
Unafraid of the cold and the quiet
For this is where magic lives
Where the mythical and mystical thrive
Weaving spells amongst the silence
I remember my power just like Persephone
For this is a season where the resolute thrive

I submerge into my own deep waters
My dark reflection staring back at me
As I descend into my true self
Into the rejuvenation that exists
At the heart of midnight
I greet each version of myself
Forgiving myself for every unkindness
Every neglectful moment
In this stillness where I am
Safe and whole inside my power
For this is the season I return to self
Where I remember who I am
A daughter of darkness and fire

-gws