Love gives you a face.

The hustle and bustle
around me
hustles and bustles
endlessly.
A thousand somebodys surround me,
and I have become
another faceless somebody,
another taken parking space,
another mass of breathing matter.
A hundred eyes glance away from me,
a dozen smile hello,
but no one sees.
No one cares to see.
The world around me overlooks faces,
but love gives you a face.

The mall stores bustle
with girls in large sunglasses
and thick mascara;
masks for their insecurities.
Popularity tells them to mask themselves,
but love gives you a face.

Love sees eyes for what they are;
the truest mirrors of the soul.
Love smiles at the curve of your nose,
and your forgotten facial hair.
Love sees the little red blemishes
and dances with delight
for the simple pleasure of having seen them,
for they are what make you,
you.

Our souls cringe and hide
when a mirror reflects us
back to us.
Our lonely hearts tell us to
hide away.
But love gives you a face.

They say there is a distance between
Tallahassee and south Alabama.
They measure it in miles,
and post their fancied gulf
on bright green signs
along the interstate.

They say there is a great distance
between you and me,
but I do not believe them,
because I feel you dancing
in the honeysuckle-wind,
and hear your whispers
cut through the salty air.

They say that love is blind,
but really, love is the only thing
that can make you see:
for without our connected heartbeats
I would never see your apparition
gliding between the yellow pines
to comfort me.

They say that there is a distance between
Tallahassee and south Alabama,
but I do not believe them
because I feel you here with me.

Oh heart! (why do you sink?)

Oh heavy heart,
why do you sink?
You are so weak,
so frail, so broken!
One day absent from her voice
drives you downward
like a stone;
-all alone.
You beat for her,
I know that well.
You pump with joy
at the sight of her eyes.
They drive you wild with buoyant frenzy,
more alive than oxygen.

Oh heavy heart,
why do you sink?
Your buoyancy has shriveled,
leaving you like a raisin
as heavy as a stone.

Oh raisin-stone,
You are so weak!
She melts you like butter,
and spreads you like sweet grape jam;
consumed by her kisses,
and engulfed by her love.
But, oh!
You live to be consumed,
and beat to be engulfed!

Oh unconsumed, unengulfed raisin-stone,
why do you sink?

If I could swallow the night.

If I could swallow the night
I would open wide my lungs
And drink it in.

I would drink in the darkness,
The cool, and the quiet peace
Into my soul.

The penetrating quietness
Is a balm of Gilead
Like no other.

The singing stars reach tired ears
WIth a song of heartbeats and
Rythmic life.

They call, "Come now, come away!
Dance with our light and watch for
The sunrise.

There is no time for sleeping
This is a vigil of breath
And whispers.

If I could swallow the night
I would open wide my lungs
And drink it in.