little girl, get up.

you trip the city’s seductive lights
cavort the streets of sodomy seas
streetlamps and headlights your saving grace
the city’s glitzlimmer your baubles and beads
deny me nothing, this scape is a dream
we’ll trod on it gently and whisper the tune
grant me your rhythms, your shimmer and sway
fall on the sunset and land on the moon
i’ll follow each motion and leap over walls
of glimmergloam silver and sharpshiny gold
fulfill now the promises empty you gave
sing now the song that you sang as of old
facedown on the sidewalk all liquor and blood
ruby and topaz and platinum blonde
regretting the pregnancies fruitless you bore
moaning confessions a tout le monde
slipping through time like sand through a glass
snagging nylon on sharp empty words
you patch up the future and hem in the past
forgetting, relearning the lessons you learned

A lovestruck Romeo, sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade
Says something like, “You and me, babe, how about it?”

Juliet says, “Hey, it’s Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”
He’s underneath the window, she’s singing
“Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back
You shouldn’t come around here, singing up people like that
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?”

Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet, and you exploded in my heart
And I forget, I forget.. the movie song
When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame
Both dirty, both mean, yes and the dream was just the same
And I dream your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me, as if I was just another one of your deals?

Well, you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah
Now you just say, “Oh, Romeo, yeah, you know
I used to have a scene with him”

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat, and the bad company
And all I do is kiss you, through the bars of Orion
Juliet, I’d do the stars with you any time

Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry
I said, “I love you like the stars above, I’ll love you till I die”
There’s a place for us, you know the movie song
When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

A lovestruck Romeo, he sings the streets of serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Find a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade
He says something like, “You and me, babe, how about it?”

“romeo and juliet,” a cover of dire straits by the killers
——
I mean, granted, there’s alot of awkward sentence phrasing and grammar, but seriously: “All I do is kiss you through the bars of Orion / Juliet, I’d do the stars with you anytime”? Gorgeous. I need to start thinking in better images instead of just saying what I feel.

suspended between past and present
longing for future, i
am a particle of dust wishing for
significance; do you
see me? do you
know me?
where is the one who knows me
intimately, every freckle, every glance?
this unknownness hurts; i want
to be loved; i want
to be known

you, my friend, are
sometimey
(in the words of another friend)
but then,
your love is too big to be constant
or maybe it’s just that you’re a.d.d.
well, fix it.
it’s not like jesus
and when i need you it hurts.

claim me,
my god, my beloved
let me lose all shame in my dancely life
living full before you and
holding nothing back
pour me out like a drink offering
empty me to the benefit of my loves
let every word i say be sweet like baby’s breath
take away my quick readiness to defend myself
pry my shield from my scared fingers
and step in front of me
so i can hold onto you instead
be so close that i see, that i want nothing else
you are my whole desire, my whole delight
be abounding joy like deep underground streams
in my chest, in my fingers
you are my life
you are my safest place
and you are dangerous
my sweet beloved roaring mighty God
above below around within
satisfy me with good things
(a promise fulfilled)
and bring your kingdom here
(a promise to flower)

virgin? yes
drinker? no
religious? yes
liberal? not really

i’m wondering how we’ve covered so many taboo topics in an hour
and suddenly i feel this enormous pressure
to overcome these shortcomings,
to prove that this conservative, sober, jesusy virgin
can be fun, i promise!

(can i please hide in the bathroom
until you’re too drunk to remember who i am?
then i can come out transformed:
obama-loving, spiritual-not-religious,
can-hold-her-liquor, sexy sophisticate
who will knock you off your feet)

i’m too old to want to drink because you are
or have sex because you are
or be skeptical because you are
or vote dem because you are
i just want to love you madly

i’m scared you’ll get too hung up on my
lifestyle
to see my
Life

A son sits at his mother’s knee as she tells him the Story.
“I couldn’t understand why my Father would withhold such beautiful fruit,”
she says quietly, hands nervous from idling when they’re so used to work.
“Such strange fruit. It caught the eye. So rich, so wine-dark.”
She sighs; a foot accustomed to wandering taps the dirt.
“He said I would be like God – and oh! How I wanted to be like my Father.
And when he said I would be wise – oh! How I wanted to be wise.
And doubt and anger caressed my heart. I couldn’t understand why Abba
would not want me to be wise and godly.”

She goes on – how she fell from grace,
how she flew from God, how she was forced from the garden.
“Your daddy – the look he gave me. He hated me in that moment.
I took him from his Father. You understand?”
Tears well up in her dark dark eyes.
“We were so
afraid.”

Longing flickers across her face, longing for a love withheld.
“He cursed me to desire and never be satisfied.
He cursed your father to work and never be rewarded.
And in that, my sweet, my angel, he cursed you -
it’s my fault, I’m sorry.”

In her mind’s eye are juice-stained hands and lips,
greedy, hungry, lustful,
and flushed faces hiding among the trees of Eden
as their Father came walking in the cool of the day.
A hissing serpent trails them,
and finally,
a weeping raging Father drives them away,
cursed, forlorn,
doomed to be futile in all their doings.

And as the Fallen enter a hostile strange world,
in the Trinity’s mind, a light pierces,
a holy sword of a thought:
They swear:
there will be redemption.
our children will not be far from us
forever.
we will not abandon them to
decay.
our beautiful ones will be holy one
day.

I read the first three chapters of the story, and it broke my heart. But not like it broke His. Or hers. Or his.

it has not been like this before:
this hopeful, gentle
joy.
this divine desire.

sometimes christ is so near he can hold me like a lover.
oh i long for my lover’s hands
and his embrace protects me
i want his breath on my neck
and his voice in my ear.

my god hears the prayers of the one who is righteous.
my god hears the prayers
my god hears the
my god hears
my god here

oh jesus, your eyes are like the dawn,
your lips are sweet,
and you, my jesus, you are faithful
like no one else has ever been.
oh you, dear jesus,
you are my sunlit morning,
my singing praise,
my wedding day,
my springtime morn,
my life, my love, my jesus.

“he will not abandon me to sheol
nor will he let his holy one see decay”

I fall silent when I’m with you.
It’s so I can watch you more closely:
watching how heaven springs forth from your eyes.
It’s so I can hear you more carefully:
hearing how God flows forth from your mouth.

I have met so few men of God.
You are one.

I want to be with you because it’s like being with God.
I recognize my Father in your face and never want to leave.
I want to dig into you, explore, observe
like a way-follower in a cathedral
You raise my gaze

You’re of the new race of men,
the resurrected, the redeemed,
a whisper of what’s to come.
When men are all like you,
I will fall in love again.

Blessed are the Barnabases
for they let us see God.