No Time for Nonsense

She came ashore

from the wild ocean

glistening with sea salt

"She looks so pretty,"

they all said

"her outfit is just so cute!"

And they missed the point entirely

Cute? Pretty?

She is an ocean warrior

a fierce guardian of life and the briny deep

she is half-wild and fearless

determined

bad-ass

bruised-knuckled

scarred and indomitable

she has written books in blood

and taught classes in caves

she has mentored students

and saved lives

she has plunged her feet

thigh deep into muck and mire

and dug into the bottom of the ocean

with a shovel and her bare hands

She is a sweat-stained stone bearer 

and a work-hardened master of her own destiny

she has wrestled with tentacles and grabbers

and not all of them in the wildern waters

She is strong and storied

undaunted and shark-dangerous

bold

wise

savage

strange

barbaric

heavy with rage and rebellion

and dangerous as a rip tide

and so

when she swims to shore

from months of world-changing work

don't you dare 

don't you DARE

lead with

"she looks pretty"

and

"what a cute outfit"

She is a spear bearer 

with no time for nonsense

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule: Survival of the Smartest

New Paths

As the sun set gold on the first day
of the new year
he climbed to the mountaintop
seeking a place
as thin as the shell of a bird's egg
where he could pray to the
small hobgoblins and great minds
of the heroes of inconsistency -
those trail-less wanderers blazing
New Paths
that great cloud of witnesses

and he waited and
held court in hushed reverence and
prayed in tongues of wood and spirit

The wild birds were the first to show
singing the most ancient psalms
Then, Uncle Ralph rose from the grave
and began drumming
thum thum thum
on the side of a hollow log
a song of unsettled hope
Sister Rachel joined in song
an untiring song of beauty
and mystery
The Healer, King
rose up, too,
and preached a sermon,
saying that darkness can't drive out darkness
and then the sun set
and we all held hands
and prayed onward into the night,
confident that the next day would come
and that
in the meantime
we had each other.