The Battle Cries Back

daughter of thunder · The Battle Cries Back

I

Those of us who know nothing but war

Bewilder cowards 

(And there is no shortage of 

soldiers who linger behind 

the loopholes)

But to be fair, I am equally confounded by cowardice

At the first beacon of blood, you run?

Who will save you from the massacre to come?

And so we stand on the frontline gawking

At the other’s means of survival.

Which is to say:

I do not understand how to be both warrior

And afraid.

II

Torture is a disc slipped from its seams

not a man too weak to know his woman’s strengths,

Try as he might to convince himself 

that you can grieve a thing you never knew.

Is not this dwelling place of demons 

The liars are calling romance.

Torture could never be 

The blooming beauty of truth:

That you could not love him

Because he would not let you.

There was nothing there to pinch the nerve,

To jolt alive at its rupture.

about: at the depth of my heart is a fighter for truth; I believe not picking a side is a final decision

Why the Willow Was Weeping

daughter of thunder · Why the Willow Was Weeping

I asked 5 strangers why her weeping drooped so remarkably:

1)

The olive flesh with wrinkle ravines run down her hands spoke 

in behalf of the widow,

Crow’s feet creasing out loud:

The unbearable bite of life straining against death, root to snap, sap to drain 

Of course the willow was weeping so.

2)

No, but it was the cut of cold sliced clear through chubby cheek

One brute battling against another:

Finally the young tot tumbled bloody into her triumph—

All of the mean and ugly still ripe to be reckoned with

—this one tiny miraculous spittle of humanity 

All but knocked the old deciduous to its knees

3)

Or perhaps 

It is the crooning of the speakers

(a chord, of its own accord, breeding grief

in every crescendo)

which sent gooseflesh to mouseheart

A memory is not a mere gismo of grievance to be 

shoved into a junk drawer;

Every time a lover or a mother breaks a being’s heart 

The record wails its old briny blue,

The willow sings her song for you.

4)

My God,

they are grasping at you with why[eye]s wide open.

The dread of Jupiter just sitting there minding his 

fat ringed business,

Constellations glitter in their achingly mindless lust for life 

All of which must be dragged into the balance

Of wind and ransom 

Of lost blood drunk down every petal 

Whittling the old tree down to bare branches

What could bring more sorrow to so beloved a species?

5)

And what could reap more hunger than joy?

Just look at us:

In love with the tapping hands rain makes against the back porch, 

The cloudy brows of your grandad,

The smoke screen in every Saturday before sunrise 

Your pretty girl, the handsome man 

you’ll love with your whole brooding being,

Just the sleepy southern drawl of molasses 

Soaked into the stump;

Look at how sweet it is to rest.

Just 5 possible reasons why the willow might be weeping: death, birth, heartbreak, hopelessness, joy

Offspring of Vipers

daughter of thunder · Offspring of Vipers

Of all the creeping, crawling creatures 

caught lurking in the shadows

who is more dangerous than man?

More duplicitous than woman?

Who has caught its prey under the guise of guardian angel

Only to smirk at your squirm beneath its claws?

It is that slithering devotion to dominate

that compels the sheep to resent the shepherd;

Let no one be startled when finally the new beast 

aches to amputate the hand that feeds it.

But what of the real viper’s venom 

or the hunger leapt clean off the leopard?

That means one death,

But a conniving thing? 

Who reaches into the core of one’s joy only to

 commit an eternal murder

And then laugh at his calculating wit:

Well, tie a millstone around his neck and toss him into the open sea. 

Matthew 23:33, Matthew 18:6

Postscript// it’s interesting, the only time Jesus, a typically mild-tempered guy, lost his cool was at the abhorrent abuse of power prevalent in his time. To think that any one of us today could escape the righteous judgment of such a heinous crime when that was the ONE thing that set him off is alarming.

While these are one imperfect person’s personal musings, there is something much greater online!

check out the Official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses here:

www.JW.org

What It Means To Lie

daughter of thunder · What It Means To Lie

To lie is

1)  To make better than. 

Fortified fruit or 

genetically modified piece of pie. 

Perhaps the blueberry batch has gone soft

between the teeth;

the baker plumps a pump of ick

into the root of it

and voilà! 

Its truth may not satisfy 

but mmm how it tastes twice as sweet.

2) To make less than.

I meeeaaannn

Does it really matter 

Who spilled the milk or let it go sour?

What’s millions of lives lost long as the west was won?

See? There, between the thumb and forefinger:

the beauty of being is broken.

Chunk of ice belittled,

and yet the avalanche is gaining momentum.

3) To make equal to

It is always 

Hell hath no fury and

wrath of God wringing around your neck

an apocalyptic trick of the tongue.

But rarely, Jehovah, my Light and my Trust

I kneel before you, majestic. 

Daddy, have I made you proud?