SNAKES

What do you do when someone you love and care about deeply choose to be in relationship with someone who has proven to be a snake in your life.... someone they KNOW has betrayed you. I am really, really struggling with this one. I am absolutely considering leaving any relationship with anyone who chooses someone who would try to undermine my relationship or lie about something I did. You want to know which of us is telling the truth: get us both on the phone. You don't want to know. You don't get to say you love me. I'm choosing me.

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 12, 2013

OUR WORDS

all we have are our words
and prayer... yes, prayer
and hope layered like
coats and sweaters in fall
all we have
all there is in the face
of evil, of despair
is words laced with
love and Spirit
fused with expectation
and yes, prayer

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 11, 2013

EVIL

You. ARE. EVIL.
That's all.
Not "what you do is evil."
No. YOU. At your core.
How do I stay in connection
with EVIL and not be 
wounded. Or become
as EVIL as you are?
HOW do we
"overcome evil with good?"
HOW does that work?

And then I read: "be kind to unkind people. they need it most."

Sigh.
But you're not just "unkind." You are EVIL.
in flesh. in person. insistent.

NOTHING

I've got nothing to say
it's been a hard, good day.
That's all.
Nothing. Else.

ME

I WONDER

I wonder whether the dreams
that invade my sleep are made of substance
whether they will happen, have already
happened and I only have to see them
become what they were in that dream--
technicolor, bold, and ready to break
out of the night into the landscape of
now and here. I wonder whether you
will join me like you did in the dream,
like you want to see it come to pass
without pausing, like you're with me
all the way. 

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 8, 2013

STORIES

We swap stories about the lint
that filled the vacuum cleaner
and made it whirr rather than grind
and we smile at the small detail
of this story, of the hands we miss
strong, firm and soft hands
that cupped our faces... we both
have these stories about
letting go of the best of us
the best people who loved
us, we swap them like kids on
playgrounds swap lunches
or secrets too hot to hold...

We miss lovers in the same way
I know because we both grab
our stomach, our head
lean back and memories
are just above the tongue
telling another summer's tale
of how you sat on a brown couch
and counted your lover's fingers,
me of how my lover and I
pressed our knees against
each other, wrapped our legs
sitting on a bed, the only
way we made love that day
You and I know the power
of these stories we loose
in the atmosphere around us
they remake us with each
telling and I find I am
hungry for your telling
so that I'll know these
stories are not some
fantasy in my head--
they really happened
and every time I tell them again
they happen once more.

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 7, 2013

48 HOURS

45 people in 48 hours

have been shot in Chicago

1 person (average) every hour and six minutes

1 hour and 6 minutes later

someone shot in Chicago

I wish I didn't know this stat

I wish I could write about

Solomon, my Yorkie or 

my friend's cat Michael

and how they each like to cuddle

I wish I could write about love

and how 13 hugs is the minimum

any body should have EVERY 

day Leo Buscaglia said

and about how touch starved

bodies might be among the 45

shot in 48 hours... 8 dead. 

I wish I didn't know that stat

I wish I could write about the

way the wind blows

through maple leaves

and a slight scent fills

the air with each breeze

about how heat radiates

from the pavement and your

hands, the way you touch me

I wish I didn't know about

untimely death, about

unnatural death, gun wounds

and trauma that lasts, about

shootings in Chicago or

Philadelphia or LA or Detroit

or anywhere... no, I wish

there was no such thing

as shot or dead people 

by gun fights by gangs 

by "disrespect"

or territorial turf wars

by wrong party in the wrong part

of the city, by kids caught 

in cross fires... I'd rather

be thinking of making

love with you, of laying on a bed

eating strawberries and laughing

I'd rather not know

this stat...

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 6, 2013