The Stage and the Illusion

The stage is set;

chestnut door, banister, and staircase

crescent window lined with lime

black metallic contraption

stacks of brown mesh sacks

cupboards adorned with technology

a flattened globe of mist and water

gray barrel on roller-skates

a drum set, of all things

(for added rhythm or

to keep the monster on track)

silver handle and small latch latched

blue jeans and a ponytail.

The illusion hovers;

wide white archway like a bony crutch

shiny green plant glossing the pages

a neglected stack of borrowed books

white painted pipes and seven sets of eyes

(on the ceiling gazing downward)

festive art hung, colorful yet transparent

bricks built on nothing leading nowhere

an empty room full of shadows.

We were here,

and for the time being

remain so.

But how did we miss the door

that leads to the outside?

Jennifer Burnside

Deceptive Sunday

Beyond the green spider wall

tightly wound men compete

with enthusiastic sincerity.

Past the fluttering fairy wasps

and straining metallic criss-crosses

move scarlet twin birds

grinning and dusty.

The hills observe with dry approval

as the drones of biplanes

scrutinize the game plan

wailing a subtle accompaniment.

Light brown puffs chalk the air

and to top it all off,

is an upside down bowl

of clear and uninterrupted

Blue sky

cool in color

but damn that’s hot.

Jennifer Burnside

Within becomes Without

The earth misplaced her lid today

the sky has released his sheep.

Your heart might lurch with sharp dismay

you’ll cry from lack of sleep.

The trees will shed their bark today

for want of cooling down.

You’ll rise from where you sleepless lay

as dream’s charred embers calmly drown.

Last night cruel beasts raged in your mind

pursuing hope with fears.

When terror chews down to the rind

your soul will shift its gears.

You’ll see beyond imaginings

of all that used to be.

Dark truths will unfold crusty wings

to bare the present’s golden key.

The ground is sponge beneath our feet

sparse grass a patchwork drought.

Dry shells of time bake in the heat

as within becomes without.

Jennifer Burnside

Canopy of Stars

After mastering the role of hero at dawn,

the memory of your existence awakens to fame.

While you have crashed into eternal slumber,

scattered remnants of your life garnish the roadside.

Your mysterious end chokes the day with tears

and your blood stains many pairs of penitent hands,

sticky with sweet love and sour remorse.

You were a child caught between force and obstruction.

You rode the angry bull with a boyish grin,

waving your cowboy hat to the rhythm of the ride.

Shy with the ladies but ever so kind, you jammed

on the dance floor with your eyes on the stage.

Conjunto Rio Grande serenaded your merry-making.

Surfing waves of melody, chasing the day and

passing the time, deep intrigues bloomed and settled

within the dark hollows of your secret mind.

Much of your life was lived beneath the stars.

From behind the wheel, you greeted countless sunrises

and sadly breathed your final breath.

Though you tried to be, you were never alone.

Thoughts and prayers paved your life path

no matter how far you wandered off.

The love of your family lit your heart with

a hope that bravely flickered through the storm.

Now you will soar across the border in a cold

cargo hold, to open arms weary from waiting.

You were often a driver and at times a passenger,

but you will always remain a beloved son.

Jennifer Burnside

Breaking Grounds

Within a colorful room lit by hope,

the reflection of sun’s glare

proves too much for the naked eye.

This present brilliance defies forward gaze

while a backstage wall resides

as blinders barring the peripheral.

Such conditions might seem obstructive,

yet wispy strips of pale blue crown

the olive-robed entity with quiet honor.

Her spirit shimmers in defense

as she wards off a hazardous threat;

the gnashing steel teeth of the machine.

Spinning slowly, the monster is tamed

as she calms him with her patience,

tenderly stroking his whirlwind of a spine.

The floor is red lava, frozen cold by

the frigid footsteps of so many visitors;

a facial surface pocked with time.

The door to the passage of sky looming above

lies prone, preventing alternate dimensions

from adorning our humble tables.

And a solitary phantom of green leafy life

garnishes this industrial stage

with vibrantly unabashed affection.

Jennifer Burnside

Electric Flutter

A harvest of fervent awareness

taps at the glass with eager tendrils.

Releasing her deepest doubts,

she nourishes the future

with abounding possibility.

In the quiet hours of night’s slumber,

a lone electrical pole exposes

herself to the winds of change.

She steps gingerly up and away

from her tidy plot of ground.

With long roots fluttering,

she surfs ever-evolving whims

with the calming assurance

that she’ll carry her identity

into the forward motion of time.

Voices creak like rusty chains,

like floorboards decomposing;

words spiral around her soul.

But sifting through their meaning,

she hears naught but a flutter.

Thus, propelled by the current,

energy emanates from her being

as she comes into her own,

while the wires who were once taut

now wave to a flow of pure notion.

And the whispering dawn applauds

beyond hesitation’s long shadow.

Casting light with a free-will,

balancing the high-wire,

braving joy in the raw.

Jennifer Burnside

A Dog Named Pity

Through an oval frame of ivy

peers a portrait of fierce curiosity.

Trapped to be taunted, his bristles

are ever raised like porcupine quills.

He serves as witness to many a fight

through the transparency of his prison.

And studies the vines as they grow and

curl into symbolic spirals of sorrow.

Braving the rain, his hopes are doused

by the reality of his winter aloneness.

The pads of his paws bake in the sun

on a summer day, as he plays dead.

Balls soar and birds fly freely

on the other side of the stubborn fence.

And no one seems to know that

the dog exists, until one day…

He notices two little gypsies creeping

on their hands and knees along the base

of the great wall. They dig the perfect hole

in which to bury their sparkling treasure.

From a distance the dog shares in their

intrigue and vows to retain their secret.

He calls to them with a series of yips,

and they hear his language of loneliness.

The oval frame of ivy becomes a portal

between two separate worlds, and thus

two little girls form a tight kinship

with a dog named Pity.

Jennifer Burnside

Going Home

He walks out at the break of dawn

to quench the thirst of his chilies in waiting.

The scent of the earth enthralls him as a golden sun

glares the morning dew down to mere vapor.

A foreshadowing of the day’s success to come,

the windows of his comfortable home have steamed up

with the sentiments of hot coffee and fresh tortillas;

he will be grilling his day’s catch of fish by noontime.

The melodic voices of his children sing the day awake

as the little ones play, preparing for school.

His heart aches with love for his family, as he hears the

rhythm of their lives building momentum after night’s dreams.

In the chicken shack, smooth warm eggs posture themselves

beneath the finely plumed hindquarters of mother hens.

His strong callused hands, stained with soil, burrow

in the nests to dislodge a few select ovals of porcelain.

As his gaze scans horizon, silhouettes of sleek horses throw 
shadows across freshly tilled meadows laden with seed.

And the clouds in the sky billow like linens that have dried

fluttering in the breeze after a delicious soak in the river…

Visiting home like this, through the eye of his mind,

has become a painful pattern

that leaves him wanting.

He leans against a tree trunk’s rough bark,

feeling its strength, needing its support,

as he decides

the time has come.

At last, he’s going home.

Jennifer Burnside

You (rough draft)

You are the place between the mind’s eye and the vision that blinks back from the outside.

You are the thin film of tears that smooth sight soft enough to see.

You are the feeling of anticipation that lurches the heart into a dozen directions when voice trebles bass in perfect balance.

You are the reminder that the heart still beats and that the wind breathes stories somewhere distant in the night…in dreams and stars and so close between the lines of two combined palms.

You are the coolest part of any sentence, the warmth of sweet tea, and the shadow of smoke against an evening wall.

You are the best part of life and yet by far the most puzzling, for you represent illusion and reality mixed together like paint in a bucket just before the colors attempt last minute to resist the swirl.

You are ever-present but half-way unattainable.

You are somewhere distant when pressed close to, yet ever the heart’s destination.

You are out there listening to others’ thoughts on the radio while your own play through the safety of insulated headphones that fit the shape of your head only.

You are in presence the sensation of completion and in absence a flicker of longing.

You are singing the sun to rise with your own beaming humor and lowering the moon into a well of despair when the inky black agony of too many memories has you tormented beyond compare.

You are lifting the spirits like nobody’s business whenever you say your name- and even if you didn’t have a name I know you would still call out to yourself, deep in the night.

You are undercover and over the rise of your self-made entity.

You are a shape-shifting wonder ahead of the clock and always on top of the latest news.

You are making things happen and pulling strings; ripping the curtains open to tear the light in, one shred at a time.

You are always knowing when to pull back just before the truth leaks out from your darting eyes; a safe glance in advance of intrusion.

You are always giving reason to love despite the moment.

You are sighing through the cracks of your life and tripping up the rhythm of time even as it ticks on, and on, and then some…

You and the moon in combination remain the prime ingredients of your inexplicable multi-faceted world.

You transform space and gravity one wispy sweet heart-wave at a time.

You soar flighty like a bird, but oh how you wish you could land.

Jennifer Burnside

Warmer (rough draft)

Approaching the intersection chamber,

sound departs at the door frame.

Red warmth sets in;

a few smiles, and then time for tea.

Triangular and leafy,

my sweetly chosen composition

whispers the story

of a haunting; the sentimental sort…

Familiar even in a fresh space,

the wise little birds chirp away.

They swing their wings like rocking chairs,

soothing me cool to retain one shred of thought.

In this fair parlor

whose shades make up for its shadows,

I sip away my sorrows

to the tune of a dreamer.

Fastened to stillness,

but soaring within.

Jennifer Burnside

Turning Point (rough draft)

Love led us here to a place of silence.

Segmented by our own fears,

our split souls cry out,

acutely aware of one another’s absence.

Woeful phrases of spontaneity

provide the upheaval

substantial enough to

awaken autumn’s weary soil.

As we strain to complete the exhausting

process of unscheduled affection,

we create questionable works of art

from our disheveled pasts.

Curdled desire induces cruel

early-evening shrieks of fuming despair,

which take place apart from the voice,

haughty with a biting conviction.

We weave away from the echoes

of long-lost battles, stretching around

the body of respect and strangling

it to death with a vengeance.

Keeping the peace, we maintain

our secret perspectives, although

through subconscious dreams we gaze

from the same set of eyes.

We have carried for centuries our sacred

sentimental charms, and flatten ourselves

beneath a flimsy finish that displays

the varying flaws of contrived forgiveness.

Subtle bruises stain our minds

as we bend the day in two.

Jennifer Burnside

Tornado

There was once a breeze who mistook

his brother windstorm for a tornado.

As the swirling breeze contained himself,

he siphoned his own succulent spite.

With mounting agitation, the windstorm

disconnected from all that was familiar.

He grew unpredictable,

ceasing his graceful dances and

altering his typical patterns, so as to astound

the foolishly assuming brother breeze.

Fury and resentment led to hysterical attack.

The two were at it for days, and

all in their wake were pummeled by

sharp electrical blasts of frenzied static.

His passion fueled by pent-up negativity,

the windstorm retaliated with sheer abandon,

while the breeze hurled doubt as if a dagger,

at the belly of the churning monster.

An intensely magnetic situation was

established by two equally opposing forces.

The line was drawn at the brim of destruction,

and at last windstorm and breeze were united.

This newfangled version of a tornado

injures all who pass through it.

Without mercy, its implosive pressure

will compress your mind until it’s lost for good.

So if on your walk you spy an unruly tornado,

spinning dark with knife securely planted

in each of its two vulnerable backs,

turn around and walk the other way.

For surely, as you can see, its chaos

has nothing to do with you. Yet.

Jennifer Burnside

Flourish

Wafting by on the breeze,

you are sly like a flying fish.

It is a perfect moment,

for a while.

Then bliss slips down the drain,

ushered along by your wry analysis.

Self-pleased and contagiously disdainful,

you have dared to scrawl trivial observation

across my intricate life. If to you the design
appears small, it is only because

you have grown distant

and grossly swollen

with the gloating distraction

of your superbly travelled self.

Jennifer Burnside

Fled

There once was a boy who wanted to be free

neither life nor love could lead his games astray.

But when he chose to join deception’s world

he left without a trace to much dismay.

Through empty endless days and frantic nights

he tamed his fears and tempted tragedy.

He lived his dreams but from them could not wake  

so drifting with shut eyes he failed to see.

Once long ago his spirit had been torn

before he had learned to mend a tear with thread.

Instead he sewed his spirit shut with lies

and weary from the strain made death his bed.

There is no way he’ll learn from what he did,

but those remaining bear his gift of loss.

His absence is a cave of countless memories

in which we might seek shelter from the cause.

He said, I shadow myself through these

times of uncertainty

I am my own reflection.

My voice is an echo of

Who I once was, he said,

And no one will ever find me.

And nobody ever found me.

Jennifer Burnside

Deep Water

He must admit there is nothing

that thrills like the feeling

which utterly consumes him

when his gaze meshes with hers;

he is astounded by her deep-water eyes.

Sensing such peace in her presence,

he breathes deeply without even trying,

as beside her his mind wanders and discovers

such distant and unexplored lands

across which to be danced.

But after time has trudged…

He must admit there have been

few feelings of such immense revulsion

like those of which she gave him;

As her gaze bored into him

with its deep-water lies.

Sensing an evil lingering after she left

he felt a desperate need for fresh air,

as apart from her he could see her tricks,

grown from a wilderness of pure rage…

He scurried away faster than he could say goodbye.

Jennifer Burnside

Broken Broom

It is important to note

at this time of woe:

It was not the brooms fault

though it suffered the most.

Telltale drops of blood like beads

decorate the white-washed wall,

but by all means, no one

must disturb the evidence.

Such humiliation; to be broken.

Poor thing can’t even cry

or die, but remains

piled piece by piece

upon its truly cracked-up self.

What beautiful fibers

cling roughly to form.

A handle, which was the body, knows

that sweeping is now a thing of the past

Broken, but not banished.

Worse than a stranger,

it was the long-lost boy,

dear and familiar,

who delivered the first blow.

But the second blow,

is what finished the deed;

sent splinters and ripped-out straw

to scatter across the floor.

Bring out the confetti.

Let us bury the scraps.

Jennifer Burnside

Presence in Passing

She drifted along

at an urgent pace

burning with solitude

Hollow within like an empty bell

she trailed her presence behind her

like ribbons of wistful desire.

The familiar route

wove a new pattern

echoing the recent past

When two bright stars had collided

at the peak of the hill, searing sparks sketched

scars across the crust of their shared entity.

Such cold water

streamed across glass

pulling soft lines

Like layered hues of the setting sun,

through which whose mild blur

the world outside had become distorted.

Despite the fog

and chance of rain

the breeze was hot

The earth shuddered beneath his frenzy

as he sought with his hands to expel

the beady-eyed agony that throttled his soul.

In the dark room

lit by despair

the walls droned as

A tuneless melody bared the day

and though the air was humid with tears

a hint of love’s flavor sweetened the remains.

Jennifer Burnside