Tag Archives: Cindervoice

Poem: “The Passenger” (2010/2020)

Hatred is a dead body
handcuffed to my wrist.
I drag it behind me,
uphill and down.

The face which smears
over rocks and concrete
is the same as the one
I see in the mirror.

The fingers which cut
grooves into the soil
bear my fingerprints;
leave their traces.

The wake I trail behind me
slowly ceases to be red.
The passenger sheds his skin.
I grow still more hollow.

Blank features pass away
as my face grows ever harder.
My back curves from the weight;
the spine is bleached by sun.

By the time the bones remaining
detach and fall away,

there will be nothing left;

nothing left to save;

but an empty shell
dragging empty handcuffs
behind.

First published as lyrics for Cindervoice’s Before the Turn LP (2010). / Republished as lyrics for Matthew S. Rosin’s Singing Is Contagious EP (2020).

Poem: “Forget To Grieve” (2014)

I still lie on my side of the bed.
The dog still curls
in the place she curled
when she curled behind your legs.

Her ears stand up at every sound and
my heart leaps to meet you.

I am aching for the day
I forget to grieve.

The column of moonlight
from the window over the bed
illuminates every speck of dust;
every memory overhead.

Every moment I think of you
is a moment I won’t sleep.

I am aching for the day
I forget to grieve.

I still lie on my side of the bed.
The dog still curls
in the place she curled
when she curled behind your legs.

You were the reason I looked ahead.
Now the future haunts my dreams.

I am aching for the day
I forget to grieve.

Published as lyrics for Cindervoice’s Forget To Grieve single, 2014.

Poem: “Cinders In the Throat” (2010)

There are many voices
inflected in your own:
every intonation
an echo.
Notes shedding their ashes;
cinders in the throat.
Something long forgotten
now glows.

There are many voices
harnessed through your throat,
remembering their calling—
breath burning.
Every new beginning:
a borrowed melody;
a spark of recollection
opening.

There are many voices
inflected in your own:
every intonation
an echo.
Notes shedding their ashes;
cinders in the throat.
Something long forgotten
now glows.

Published as lyrics for Cindervoice’s Before the Turn LP, 2010.

Poem: “Pass Not That Way Again” (2010)

“Where one can no longer love,
there one should pass by.”
Though memory aches for former shapes,
pass not that way again.

Human curves and fingerprints
should not be cast in corners.
The huddled form is not for you.
Pass not that way again.

Where surprise has fallen mute,
there no gods will grow.
Those spirits have all lost their breath.
Release their spent air from your lungs.

Fever dreams too tightly held
deserve only your tears.
Lay to ground their will to death.
Pass not that way again.

Steps ahead, voices resound
that beckon us to being,
forgive us our misshapen pasts,
and welcome us in changing.

“Where one can no longer love,
there one should pass by.”
Though memory turns to clasp cold lips,
pass not that way again.

Published as lyrics for Cindervoice’s Before the Turn LP, 2010. Includes quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Walter Kaufmann translation.

Poem: “Get Up” (2010)

Get up out of your corner.

Digging at rocks and
shattered nerves
won’t lift you up.

Get up out of your corner.

My fallen child,
what have you become?

You used to be
a little god—

self-determined,
or so you believed,

as you danced
on the edge of
a blue crisis.

Get up out of your corner.

Published as lyrics for Cindervoice’s Before the Turn LP, 2010.