latin

title track (these are the tears of things)

/ joanna / 1 Comment

i have never been one to let scabs heal,
so how can you expect
me to let this pass painlessly, fade
into a diminished humanity?
i think really what i wanted was a
cataclysm, catharsis,
but all your outstretched hand withdrew
was a sunset, crimson glow fading
to leave goosebumps on a hard-worn dignity.
The last throw
went to balance, and though
she tipped her hat
to fire, to ecstasy and wild joy,
i’m left behind in a frosted limbo, wondering
where i will find dancing stars
now, surrounded by this nebulous,
ebbing reality.

unsounded lyric

/ joanna / Leave a comment

Irrevocable
the sound of something dying deep inside me;
a dark rhythm, insistent
pounding of silence
that reads
lasciate ogne speranza,
one language not enough
to assuage
the piece of me
that now lies quiet
on a crag of sunburnt earth
close to the divine.

What remains
rages, essence and flame
spiraled higher because
I still breathe,
hardly knowing how but
I dance
barefoot
over mirror-shards
of who I have been,
defy you
to define me,
pick out the parts of my
blood,
the promise and power I alone
hold
for as long as I restrain
my doubt, refrain
from turning my head and
tripping
over might-have-beens.

promethea

/ joanna / Leave a comment

Caught up in microcosms

and forgetting to breathe

I dance, shivering

over quicksands baked under desert suns,

phenomenon no less strange

than that I am at home in overcast lowlands

dripping dew and melancholy.

Huddled against a prying wind

and shielding what was once flame

from altogether extinction,

I look for direction

to a changeable sky,

try singing,

scribble in mud, hope

only not to become buried

in metaphor.