Things I Cannot Say Out Loud

 

Neither up nor down

Hot nor cold

Neither passion nor pity

 

Something in between

Troubled and fine

 

The dividing line

Makes me nervous

That I have forgotten

 

How to feel

Except once in a while

 

Tears will well

Heart will lift

Anger will flare

 

Depression and anxiety

Flat lined

 

Makes an even field

Removing the bumps along the way

So uncomfortably numb

 

I have to dig deep

To find my feelings

 

Thankfully ungrateful

Of the little pill

That evens my keel

 

By Diane E. Dockum

© April 10, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progression

Original

Indigenous, authentic

Genuine, actual, true

A prototype of things to come

Primordial

~~~

Dry

Arid, parched

Scorched, wilted, bare

A place without nourishment

Unemotional

~~~

Meditation

Contemplation, thought

Musing, reverie, pondering

Cultivating the presence of God

Prayer

 

 

By Diane E. Dockum

©April 9, 2016

Urgent Robin

 

High up at the end of a branch

Singing so hard his eyes pop

The song is pushing out to

Reach his lady

His voice cracks, but still he

Sings. He has a mission

That must be fulfilled

No time for breath

 

By Diane E. Dockum

©April 7, 2016

Hope of Spring

After days of sun and hope of spring
When snow blows cold and new,
Crusting to the cedar branches,

Sticking fast to maple trunks
Standing silent in a line
Hardened in the frigid air

Trees reach forlornly
Naked and starkly drawn
With charcoal strokes

Cold so long they crack
And shiver in the wind
Beneath peeling bark they wait

The stillness and the motion
Draw a contrast to the eye that watches
Sun setting without melting the snow

No smell of earth drifts to us now
No promised soft warm breeze
Patience is pulled reluctantly from the brain

Tomorrow comes, and again tomorrow
When each day is a step closer
To growth, to new beginnings

By Diane E. Dockum
© April 6, 2016

White Rabbit

 

 

I made myself wake up,

I had to stop a mushroom dream.

My chest felt crushed under a

Pale fat man with buckteeth

Lying on top of me cutting my hair.

He seemed so shy, and wouldn’t

Look me in the eye.

Later,

When he put on his glasses and vest

He turned into a large white rabbit.

This surprised me, as it was quite sudden.

His scissors were so nasty,

You could see patches of rust along the blades.

I worried that I would get

A terrible hair cut,

In fact, he had left one of the locks

Long and it hung down to my left

Shoulder, while the rest was

Chin length.

Upsettingly, he had given me bangs

Without permission,

And I had to talk him out of being a rabbit

So he could correct it, which seemed to take forever.

I felt as if I could not breathe,

I don’t think I was

Getting enough oxygen.

Oddly, his name was Kinney

Like the drug store.

 

 

 

By Diane E. Dockum

© April 5, 2016

 

 

Five twenty two a.m.

And the townsfolk

Collectively roll over

In their beds,

Fluff the pillows

And snuggle back down

Into their blankets

As the train passes through

With a rumble and a whistle

And more whistles at street crossings

In the half light of dawn

And a little while passes until

The birds start singing

Eight fifty eight p.m.

And final prayers

Are said before

Closing the casket

The night before his funeral

The family collectively

Exhales

Thinking of his model trains

Now at rest in his basement

Tracks laid out with scenery

And miniature village buildings

The family collectively

Inhales

As the train passes through

With a rumble and a whistle

And more whistles at street crossings

In the half light of dusk

And a little while passes until

The birds stop singing

~~

By Diane E. Dockum

©April 4, 2016

Passing Through

Transcendence

Inside that Sheath

That covers our soul

Discomforts come as

Messages and,

Pictures that slide through

Our brains in a chemical soup.

Do we pay attention?

Where do we feel stress?

Mind? Body? Spirit?

Head, heart, muscles and tendons

Knit together

In an amazing framework.

Layers cover the depths

Of our eternal essence —

Skins as thick as a rhino’s.

Yet, this is a temporary place.

We move on from here

To another plane

Where our being,

Realigns with the Universe

And Love is All.

 

by Diane E. Dockum

 

 

The Falsie Next to the Overnight Deposit Box

The falsie next to the

Overnight deposit box

Lies abandoned

For unknown reasons

Robin’s egg blue

Against the pavement

Soft, round foam

Who knows what happened

To cause its

Placement at this establishment

Did it fly out as she

Reached through the car window

To deposit her check

Or did some random

Boob leave it there?

 

By Diane E. Dockum

Cocoons

 

Lunch

In my car

Alone

And surrounded

by others alone

Having lunch

In our own cocoons

Watching the lady in the tan SUV

Parked on a hill

Reading a paper back

I wonder what it is

I remember reading in my car

But, it’s been a while

The man next to me

Stares sourly into his salad

Picking the best pieces

Looking out at traffic

Chewing with a thousand yard stare

 

 

© 2016, Diane E. Dockum