Relationships

What can one say about relationships?

One minute a beautiful partnership

The next has you in fits

So what are we to make of it?

One asks, why not be free?

What is it that’s important to me?

Is it the feeling of bonhomie?

Or should I set myself free?

With all the questions laid bare

And pennies for my care

I cannot deny the urges

That always takes me there

Sometimes I look back…

Attempting to define what I lacked

As if I have put myself on a rack

Lost and bound to never come back

Our fortress

Oh tell me mother dear

What is it you hold dear?

Is it hopes and fears beyond the years?

Is it a need for love so strong

That you feel you don’t belong?

I can recall the stories and the holes in the walls

I can be four and not fear at all

You can surround me and separate from it all

If only that was all

If you try and measure, what gives us pleasure

Is it our fortress?

Is it our gall at how others fall?

Or do we just hold our fears dear, 

And speak of them once of a year?

Charlotte 2008

On the Wing

I love the sound of the mourning dove on the wing
feathers spread and whistling in the wind
Their plaintive call is a beautiful thing
A mourning message they do send…

~Charlotte 5.29.09

Never Be Mine

I look at you and see

My life that might have been

I recall the owl claiming the big tree

He will forever be a reminder of you and me

Something to be admired from afar

A thing to claim as mine

But the sheen on you and I we cannot mar

For it will be suspended for all time.

Maybe I want you as a dream

Not the reality

But everything is not what it seems

And the motions we go through are a mere formality

Now I am looking back over my shoulder

At you finding happiness without me

One year older, one year bolder

The pieces of our love scattered like debris

This is where a long to be

This is what I need

Is this where I want to be?

Is this what I need?

Regardless of my wants, I must set you free

I know this will never be mine

I am left with the promises I made

I feel the shame of not making them real

I left you feeling betrayed

I feel the added pain of a need to conceal

We must act as if all is fine

We must distance ourselves from the lifeline

I must strike fish heads from my mind

And know this will never be mine

~Charlotte  3.27.09

Kettle Whistle

Sing kettle sing
bring me my morning tea
add milk and sugar- not too much!
all in my favorite cup

Now I can sit outside
enjoying my cuppa
soaking up all that nature provides
while the morning sun creeps up
and my body is energized with all that I imbibe.

~Charlotte 5.29.09

I’m All Worn Out

Watch your hands,

I’m hot to the touch.

Promise me,

because I’ve had enough.

Laugh out loud,

and watch the neighbors stare.

Scream and shout,

I don’t care.

I’m running out,

I’m running out,

I’m all worn out.

Christen me,

I need to purify.

Bury me,

because it’s time to die.

Spectacle,

Keep drama over there.

Punish me,

I don’t care.

I’m running out,

I’m running out.

I’m all worn out.

I need a drink.

I need a smoke,

to enjoy inside my empty heart.

I’m running out,

I’m running out.

I’m all worn out.

~Charlotte Slater 2010

Here comes the sunshine

Here comes that daughter of mine

Here comes wit sublime

Here’s a poem for her for all time

Sweet kisses

Three wishes

Lovely MacKay

The most beautiful

The most willful

The most fantastic countenance 

I have ever seen

Sweet bliss

A mirthful twist

Lovely MacKay

You bring me so much joy

A love that does not cloy

My heart you fully employ

Sweet MacKay

~Charlotte Greer Slater 8.7.09

Halcyon Day

A sunny day has come my way
I sit and soak in the rays
reveling in my blue sky day
appreciating nature’s way.

I could go find water to frolic in
or a trail to follow
but instead I have writing to begin
as i sit in a tranquil hollow.

~Charlotte 5.29.09

DRAFT to HIS HEART

What have I done?

Destroyed our peace

Might as well have used a gun

This is not catch and release

Go find a nice little house wife, 

Someone whose love and beauty pales

Who will give you a steady life.

And not keep going off the rails.

Our plan was not to run around

Yet we exist in a graceful arc

But there I was in the lost and found

Across the falling dark

Let me sing my song to you

One last time

Let me bring my love for you

and hear your heart chime

So I die inside now

A little more each day

I cry inside for a vow

And attempt to hide the fray

Fight for me my darling, save me my groom

Like the little starling stunned from the impact

With the windows that seal my room

I sit panicked and frail in your palm unable to react