A need for self protection
more fierce, more essential
than life itself.
The consuming energy of keeping her heart safe.
The waning strength to keep the walls fortified.
To give without receiving.
To live without wanting
A game of survival that she only knew
how to play alone.
© Ali Grimshaw
When the questions hurt,
air thick with despair.
join together.
link your hearts.
© Ali Grimshaw
You may believe that I am with you
facing the sea side by side.
Yet I am hidden away
oceans from this place,
traveling without a suitcase.
My vessel left behind.
I don’t need a ship to carry me
to the places I am visiting.
© Ali Grimshaw
I will sing you comfort when your voice forgets the notes.
I will sing you a clearing in the forest,
a place to feel the warm sun on your back.
I will sing you courage for days when you
need to hear the music again.
© Ali Grimshaw
Like drops of rain
your temporary presence is
sliding away in moments
reflected in your eyes.
I ache with holding the love
and the loss to come
while we dance in this final day.
What is there to say
that we have not already lived?
The moment will soon arrive
a storm inside me
words a jumble on my tongue
there is no good way to watch you
walk back to your other life.
© Ali Grimshaw 2016
Why is it that the words on your lips
do not match your face?
A perplexing incongruence
leaving me wondering which to trust
the sweet promise of your mouth or
the words my soul knows to be the truth.
© Ali Grimshaw
In between us lies an agreement
a foundational love that maps our conversations
guiding us through fear back to true north
when we have lost our way
in the world of our own emotions.
© Ali Grimshaw
shadows on the deck grow longer
leading the way to closure
the words in my mouth hide
they don’t know how to cooperate
with all that my heart
wishes to say.
© Ali Grimshaw
The sun on my skin
inspiration of blue sky.
The bright taste of sunrise
juice of summer peach dripping off my chin.
Forgiving myself with ease,
every day.
© Ali Grimshaw
Years from now
yearning for the body I have today
with its imperfections and pain.
My gnarled fingers and I will laugh.
How could I have known
the fluidity I possessed.
© Ali Grimshaw
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 