Fourlinegraphia

  Before the rifles came to clear the land, The Blue Ridge rose through veils of morning mist; Our feet knew every valley, stream, and strand, Each trail remembered every hand it kissed. The rivers held our stories in their flow, The winds carried the names our elders gave; Our words were leaves that whispered soft and low, Our language was the fire our ancestors saved. Sequoyah gave our living words a form, And letters bloomed like branches in the rain; We wrote our voices through the silence of the storm, So none could say our people lived in vain. Then soldiers came like shadows before dawn, With orders written colder than the stone; They drove us from the homes we had lived upon, And claimed the earth as though it were their own. The hearths still burned; the beds were left behind, The doors stood open to the empty air; A mother searched for children she could not find, While grief became the only thing to bear. Rising Fawn spoke words that would not bend, And justice once decl...

  The Woman I Lost *************** She walks past the café where we used to sit, And for one stupid second, my body remembers her still; Then my mind reminds me she is no longer mine to remember, And somehow, her not seeing me hurts more than if she did. *** They call her my ex, as if that word explains everything, Ex-wife, ex-lover, ex-just a neat little label; But there is nothing neat about what I did to her, Or the years I spent quietly dismantling her heart. *** I remember her crying alone in the middle of the night, Never loudly, always quietly, behind pillows and locked doors; She had learned to hide her pain where no one could hear it, While I slept beside her, blind to the war inside her chest. *** She woke with swollen eyes and still asked if I had slept well, And I answered yes, never asking what had kept her awake; I thought her forgiveness was permanent, her love without limits, Mistaking devotion for permission to keep hurting her. *** Every promise I broke became ano...

I Was the One They Cast Away ****************************** When I entered that house, my laughter scattered like pearls from a broken golden thread. * They spoke of duty and sacred blood, of promises smooth as polished silk, and I believed I had found my home. * I gave them the spring of my youth, I gave them the river of my sweat, I gave them the altar of my soul. * I kept the hearth burning like a sun, calmed every passing shadow, and called my surrender devotion. * I did not know then that some homes are built like mazes, with iron bars hidden behind ivory walls. * Some doors open wide as a welcome, only to lock like a tomb behind you; some velvet robes conceal heavy chains. * I mistook stone walls for protection, I mistook possession for love, I mistook a quiet cage for belonging. * When my beauty began to fade, when the season of my strength waned, the warmth they promised vanished like mist. * Wealth and praise slipped away, fine grain leaking through open fingers, leaving only ...

  Again and again, someone crosses the doorway of my dreams, Leaving behind the softest sound of footsteps in the air- And somehow, deep within the quiet room of my thoughts, I know it is you who has arrived and left me standing there. *** Again and again, beneath the silver glow of the night, I hear a golden flute whispering a melody so sweet and low, Is it the darkness speaking gently of your distant face, Or is it just my lonely heart that will not let you go? *** Perhaps the drops of dew resting upon the morning leaves Are tears shed by our memories, soft pearls of yesterday, Reminders of the quiet moments I have wished to hold, Before the passing hours carried all our time away. *** Perhaps the wandering breeze touches the strings within my chest With careless, fleeting fingers as it passes through the night, And all the music rising from the silence of my soul Is nothing but the echo of your love made pure and bright. *** Sometimes, when I look out through the cold and quiet ...

Anklet Ring ************ I sit beside you and hold your hand, The same gentle hand that once held mine. Your fingers are thin, your voice is weak, Yet my heart still swells with the same deep love. *** To me, you are still the brave sister Who walked beside me when I was small. I look at your face, worn by the years, And through my tears, I see another face- The vibrant young woman I remember from childhood, **** With bright eyes, a gentle smile, And bangles singing softly on her hands. Do you remember, sister, How desperately I used to follow you everywhere? *** How I cried your name when I was afraid, And how you would come running to comfort me? You were my safe harbor then, And even now, my restless heart feels peace beside you. *** I still remember the sweet comfort of your footsteps- The cherished sound of your anklets Coming down the path toward our home. To others, they may have been just a sound; To my young heart, they were the safest music I ever knew. *** Years have passed ...

You left a last letter, as though a life could be explained, Once there was no life left to answer for its scars; You wrote of respectable faces walking in the sun, While you had learned to make your dwelling in the dark. You said the best of you was discarded long ago, And what remained had learned to live without a name; You could have carried on that way, as others do, Until my presence made you look at yourself again. Love was not a gentle light when it entered you; It stripped away the shelter of your compromises bare; The man you had accepted suddenly seemed strange, When you imagined how he might appear to me. You spoke of hands that had known too many women, And swore that mine would never feel their touch; Not from a lack of longing, but from something deeper- You thought your darkness would contaminate what you loved. You told me you had never wounded those beside you, That pain had often been something you endured; You wanted to change, to leave that life behind, But wantin...