Poetry

"Love Letter to Embedded Heartache"

The eye softens, 
vignettes make the welcome in fog

heals a small broken crack
 the gold patchwork in broken porcelain, has the power to lift in tiny ways by admitting,

the eyes write straight from the heart.

the goodness between us is freeing,
 it is a shooting star night, it is warm water, internal silk, crushing velvet deeply in each other

it breathes in and it breathes out
 it smiles, it tears and grows hard

it bleeds into, onto- below the surface, changing our chemistry

entwining & drips into daydreams

I am pressed to a sheet of glass waiting for a text

a sign

a feather to fall

a ball to drop

is it a new year yet?

has my hallow escaped the echoing chamber-

I say I feel alone - it echoes back

I cry I feel lost- it echoes back

I melt into the floorboards- the wood just takes me as a grain of salt

washed into an estuary and then out to sea

Put me in an ancient city, an old European city so I can feel the age old pains and loves

Take me from the circle I am rounding

where any push equals to shove

Rejection is the word no. will you meet me

will you stay

will you come

will you be there do you want to do you wish to

invisible seamstress I have been hanging on threads wrapped around my throat

hanging in public /1715

the comfort of your body is the oldest memory

like a ghost

as a medicine

as the body that comes from the sea 
it comes for me

The coarse voice on the shore says- let go

you cannot feel this love- 
you are not welcome here in this heart

you cannot be sheltered and you cannot be escorted

walk the beam along the jetty until you find somewhere unfamiliar and hallowed stay there

and let salt rush to your wounds

Crushing rock into sand-

I have spun the wheel to make softer yarn to hold my neck yielded to the memories

colossal tears falling like a tick tock

-I am a cuckoo clock -

You will see me on the hour

like a stressed bird

feathers and fingers are just arrows pointing out

You have the deed to my freckles

hold the gold of my heart

you may spend it -save it -invest it- toss it to the lake

& let it sink

and as I transform -let me wash over the pebbles beneath you your weight sends me down to the core

where the fire in the earth is a foundry

& takes my golden freckled memory -churns out alloys and allies

Invest

put me into your downy side

let my string & yarn & thread be woven

I will fix your button and sew you a pocket breathe the stream, the fog, the salt air

resuscitate me, wind the key in my back, give me a sign please break the glass

are your eyes soft

can they write to me - translate -

how is the love not love enough

can they lead me down from the jetty

get in the warm water to see the shooting stars the dark night

the bold moon

I am mature porcelain

take your tea in with me

I hold what goes down your throat

the bitter

the sweet

the cream

the honey

hanging in a silk and cotton bag

from the threads that can strangle my core

or leave a remnant of tears and stain

chemistry found us

forged letters

let the waves crash louder than usual
 dumped elements out on a picnic blanket

 invited us for seeds and left us starving.

Melissa C. Helzer