Tempest
September 6, 2011
Your breath flows through me
breaking every bone,
ending every sentence…
I’m falling up now, as through water.
Head, then shoulders
collar bones filled with sand;
Tiny stones splitting my skin.
and I’m sinking
sinking, sinking upward.
What a perfect manner in which to stow away an epic;
deep into a dusty corner on your lowest shelf,
along with all your classics.
The sea echoes in my chest
slow, undulating waves wash away the land.
Somewhere in the lazy, hazy days of summer
my ‘self’ slipped from me.
It was replaced with the callouses on your hands
with your humming in the shower,
your furrowed brow reading the morning news;
your favorite ice cream, your fears, your sleep talking
you, you, you.
and gone, myself, whom I’ve traded to have you
http://katevanraden.wordpress.com/
Acts Of God by kate van raden
March 24, 2011
Can’t Help But Think…
March 12, 2011
Can’t Help But Think…We’ve Done This
by Kate Van Raden
http://scriptical.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/cant-help-but-think-weve-done-this/
As I spend the last 17 hours watching reports of the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunamis all over the globe, I can’t help but ask myself…have we done this?!
My immediate response to any emotion-filled situation, comes out best in verse:
3.11.11
We dance the way we’d like to think the world will turn,
Our shoulders sway above our hips, convictions burn
Our soles pound out the earth and shake the plates
Our spirits light bonfires underneath our fates
The mountains quiver, grasping tightly to their roots
The rabbits shudder coldly in their boots
Serpents coil down beneath the cracks
We nomads lash our legacies upon our backs
Grizzlies cower sheepish in their caves
The earth is weeping now in hurricanes and waves
The ocean tucks its skirts and heads for land
So the darkness now descends upon the son of man
OPEN YOUR EYES
March 16, 2010
The Un-Loving of you
February 7, 2010
The Un-Loving of You
by Kate Van Raden
I’m letting you go,
I’m giving you back,
Each bit of your self that I’ve kept…
I returned those eye brows,
and a few of your teeth,
I packed them and hummed as I wept…
I shipped off your thighs in a box with some fingers,
the larger ones only, for now…
When you asked for your shoulders
I blinked back a frown,
But I let you take them,
And some lashes I’d found.
Now, the chuckle was harder,
I was still using that
And without your soft hair,
I just can’t hang my hat
But I do understand that you need these things back
So I try to be gracious, although it’s an act.
The hard part is coming
And I know I’ll feel lost
with no way to smell,
Or to taste, or to talk…
See, I cherish your lips
still so familiar,
and your eyes that melt chocolate for me…
There’s a crook in your nose
that it’s not yours without,
and I’m starting to feel a bit empty…
At last to my treasures
high on a shelf…
to your voice and your skin and your hands,
I hoped I could keep these forever,
but your starting to list your demands…
I can’t bear to imagine the woman who gets these,
I break down each time at the thought.
They’ve been mine for so long,
I just couldn’t tell you
how I’ll go on when they’re not…
Almost nothing is left here
You’ve taken it all
so we’ve parted, I get it, I’ll go…
but I wonder if I could compel you
the compassion to leave me a toe…?
By: Kate Van Raden
http://katevanraden.wordpress.com/
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