{"id":83,"date":"2007-09-30T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2007-10-01T03:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.andybox.com\/?page_id=83"},"modified":"2007-09-30T22:32:08","modified_gmt":"2007-10-01T03:32:08","slug":"recent-poetry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?page_id=83","title":{"rendered":"Recent Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins
\nSept 15, 2003<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heeeeeeeere, dolphin dolphin dolphin
\n“Dolphin encounter”
\nSounds intriguing
\nHer eyes light up like a Christmas tree
\nOooh!
\nSure, we could do that
\nYou pick one, I pick one
\nI’m gonna pet his head
\nLet’s go snorkeling, too
\nThat’s the main thing I want to do
\nCool. Let’s book them as soon as
\nWe get on so it won’t sell out first
\nI tried to pet one once, but he laughed at me
\nWow, two hundred bucks?
\nThat’s a car payment plus a month’s interest
\nWhen you add in lunch
\nDolphin dolphin dolphin dolphin dolphin!
\nYeah, let’s do it.
\nAnd this pirate cruise sounds fun, too.<\/p>\n

She’s been waiting for this for years
\nAdd ’em up, and we’ve got two car payments
\nAnd the power bill
\nI’m gonna take him home with me<\/p>\n

We have the tickets
\nWe go ashore
\nShe looks as excited as she did on our wedding day
\nDolphin dolphin dolphin dolphin dolphin!
\nAnd I realize that money
\nIs a small price to pay
\nFor her living a dream.<\/p>\n

Darkness
\n3-21-03<\/strong><\/p>\n

We lie in darkness, the door open
\nto the balcony to let in cool air
\nMy wife and I, not yet three months old together
\nI’m finally used to her having my last name
\nShe lays her arm across my chest
\nAnd says she’s glad I’m not over there
\nAnd I say I am, too
\nAnd I listen to the cars drive by on the distant road
\nThe sky is dark and clear<\/p>\n

I imagine a young man on the other side of the world
\nBeneath the same dark sky,
\nCounting the stars,
\nCounting the days till he gets to come home,
\nCounting the days since he’s seen his new wife
\nWondering how many days he has left,
\nif he’ll get to come home to her at all
\nWaiting for the call that will come any day now
\nTo cross the border
\nListening for a phone call, a shot fired,
\na missile screaming in the distance
\ngrowing ever louder
\nWondering if it’s aimed at him
\nWondering if his presence there
\nWill really keep his new wife safe
\nOr if that’s just a nice idea to keep him motivated.<\/p>\n

I feel her arm across my chest and realize what she means
\nIt’s all real now<\/p>\n

It’s finally cold enough in here to sleep
\nI shut the door and kiss my wife goodnight.<\/p>\n

Princess
\n1-29-02<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder if she is the fabled princess
\nWhom I seek without seeking,
\nWant without wanting,
\nAnd love without knowing.
\nShe smiles at me and tosses me
\nHer sash for good luck,
\nEven though neither of us believes in luck.
\nShe is a princess, indeed,
\nAlthough when I’m with her
\nShe’s no further from me
\nThan the distance between our clasped hands.
\nCan it be this easy?
\nCan it feel this right?
\nWill I one day be willing to give her my kingdom,
\nForsaking all others forever?
\nHow will I know when it’s right,
\nWhether she is the answer
\nTo every girl question I’ve ever mulled over or dreamed?
\nWill my heart be able
\nTo treat her as royalty until our kingdom falls?
\nI love the way she looks upon me
\nFrom atop her throne
\nElegant, confident, brilliant and kind,
\nHer smile bringing joy to my soul.
\nHer blue eyes look within me
\nAnd silently ask,
\n“Will I one day be queen of your heart?”<\/p>\n

Fork
\nJuly 20, 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n

The path is green today
\nLined with roses and lilies and stargazers
\nA lazy day
\nAfter a long night
\nYour hand is small in mine
\nSmooth and soft
\nUnweathered by work and time
\nSteam rises from us
\nInto the wet air
\nWithout cooling the flame
\nYou smile at me
\nAhead in the distance I see a fork
\nEach side only wide enough for one
\nBut you can’t see it yet
\nAnd I don’t tell you
\nBut I loosen my grip a bit.<\/p>\n

The path is yellow today
\nLined with roses and lilies and stargazers
\nA difficult day
\nAfter a short night
\nYour hand sweats in mine
\nCold and unsteady
\nYou look up with your beautiful, innocent eyes
\nAnd seem like you could let yourself love me one day
\nWe come upon the fork that only I could see
\nAnd your smile fades
\nYou see there’s only room for one
\nIn each direction
\nAnd know that neither can follow the other
\nI wipe away my tear
\nSqueeze your hand
\nAnd let you go.<\/p>\n

The path is brown today
\nLined with roses and lilies and stargazers
\nA quiet day
\nAfter a restless night
\nMy hands are dry and calloused
\nYours I cannot see
\nAlthough you’re walking in the distance
\nAlone
\nYou look ahead, although you know I’m watching,
\nBecause you don’t want to hurt me
\nBut I only watch to see if you’re okay
\nTo see if your smile has returned
\nSomeday your path will widen again
\nTo let in someone new
\nAnd his hands won’t sweat in yours
\nAnd maybe your path won’t fork this time
\nYou pass out of sight
\nI take my first step
\nFrom where we said goodbye.<\/p>\n

Helpless
\n10-29-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a baby in your arms
\nSquishy and fussy and squirming
\nfor my eyes are too small to see.<\/p>\n

Helpless I lie on your breast
\nHaving nothing I gained on my own
\nAnd yet fighting with every small ounce of my strength
\nThinking I could do better alone.
\nYou patiently smile when I kick you
\nDon’t get mad when I will not obey
\nWhen I find I don’t have all the answers
\nWe sit down and you show me the way.
\nWhy do you love when I cry all night
\nAnd keep you awake with my screams?
\nWhy do you rock me and kiss my face
\nAnd make me believe in my dreams?
\nEvery time I soil myself again
\nYou pick me up and tell me it’s okay
\nAlthough it’s always hard on you and me
\nSomehow you know I’m going to learn someday.
\nI know not, Daddy, what I do
\nI spill my milk, I scratch my face
\nI scribble on my nursery walls
\nThick marks I can’t erase.
\nBut somehow Daddy’s love is greater
\nThan the promise I can’t keep
\nAnd still you’re with me, safe and strong
\nAnd finally, in your arms, I sleep.<\/p>\n

Takeoff
\n10-19-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your engine roars to life,
\nFueled by your passion for me,
\nFor us, for creation.
\nI see you on the runway
\nPoised to overcome the sky
\nYou wave to me, and I start running
\nYou wait for me, waiting to welcome me
\nUnder your wing where I belong.
\nHow long has it been since I felt your warmth
\nSince I let go your hand
\nAnd plummeted gently back to earth
\nThe cold, lonely, empty earth where I am god?
\nI reach you.
\nYou take my hand and I look ahead at the
\nRiver of concrete before us
\nAnd the boundless, brilliant blue of the sky above
\nHaving no clue where we’re going but knowing
\nWe’re going the right way.
\nYou throttle up, and I run with you
\nThe wind whips my hair harder and harder
\nI laugh
\nFaster and faster your engine thunders
\nIt feels like I’m flying already
\nMy feet pound the pavement of the earth
\nLike a racehorse
\nFaster and faster until it’s time to pull up
\nInto the sky.
\n“Hang on,” you say
\nBut I won’t take my feet off the ground
\nAnd we’re going so fast that I can’t keep up
\nAnd you want me to trust you,
\nLet you be the guide and the engine
\nBut I miss the earth and all its muck
\nBefore I’ve even left the ground.
\n“It’s time to choose, my son,” you say
\nAnd I know you’re right, and I know that it’s worth it
\nBut I’m torn between heaven and earth
\nAnd now you’re moving faster than my legs can go
\nAnd I let go.
\nI slam into the pavement, scraping elbow, face, and knee
\nBruising bone and tearing flesh
\nAnd leaving bloodstains in my wake
\nAs I tumble, roll, and skid
\nAcross the earth I couldn’t bear to leave behind.
\nGroggily I stand up and I
\nLook up at the sky, but you’re not there.
\nI guess I should go home now,
\nBattered, bloodied, and bemused,
\nSo I turn around to stumble on
\nAnd that is when I see you
\nOn the runway,
\nPoised to overcome the sky.
\nYou wave to me, and I start running
\nAnd I notice that the pain is gone
\nFor you have taken it away
\nI take your hand and pray that
\nMaybe this will be the time I don’t let go.<\/p>\n

Inside, Where It’s Warm
\n12-13-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fire dances and crackles beside me
\nThe kind my grandfather used to build
\nAt Christmastime so we could roast marshmallows
\nAnd feel like we were home.
\nWe could smell it when we went outside
\nInto the cold air, one of those beautiful
\nSmells that always make you smile.
\nWhenever I left that sanctuary
\nIt always reminded me what it was like
\nOn the outside
\nWhere winter was a bad season
\nThe loneliest of seasons, for it was then
\nYou could feel all that you lacked…
\nIn the icy rain that soaked through
\nAll the thin, tattered rags that you wore on your back,
\nIn the heat of the food left behind in the trashcan
\nStill steaming but cooling in cold winter air,
\nIn the wind that cuts through
\nThe one blanket you sleep with
\nThat wails through the night
\nAnd dissolves all your dreams
\nAnd then I would come back
\nInside, where it’s warm
\nAnd my grandfather’s fire would dance in the night
\nFor a while I’d forget all the cold on the outside
\nContent in the life I could never deserve.<\/p>\n

I am the Bottle
\n12-3-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am the bottle of perfume he’s guarded
\nFor ages and ages hung over his heart
\nVanilla and lavender, roses, magnolia
\nAll waiting for someone with whom he could share
\nI was there when his heart started beating inside him
\nThe moment he met you I started to shake
\nI looked at the treasures he’d stored deep within me
\nWond’ring if you were the one that he’d choose
\nWhen he walked up to you I knew this was the moment
\nI trembled inside as he held me aloft
\nThen he broke me and poured all my beauty upon you
\nCaressing each inch of your beautiful feet
\nBut you picked up a towel, began wiping your feet off
\nThe look in your eyes nearly shattered his heart
\nThere I lay in the garden with no more to offer
\nWhere he left me in silence, so broken and cold.<\/p>\n

Questions for God Before We Destroy the World Ourselves
\n10-7-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early this morning, as I lay blissfully asleep,
\nB-2 Stealth bombers, invisible to radar,
\nTook off from an airfield in Missouri,
\nFlew halfway around the world
\nIn a matter of hours,
\nAnd dropped bombs on one of the
\nPoorest nations on earth
\nIn retaliation for its government
\nDestroying one of the tallest buildings on earth
\nAnd killing the equivalent of my whole high school plus half.
\nI awoke, made coffee, read my Bible,
\nHaving no idea that in a few hours,
\nPeople who couldn’t tell you where New York was
\nWould die at my country’s hands.<\/p>\n

They will retaliate.
\nWe will continue to attack.
\nSo will they.
\nPerhaps one day it will end.
\nPerhaps we’ll live in fear for the rest of our lives.
\nPerhaps I’ll be drafted, and my mother will cry.
\nPerhaps the end is near, and the 300 million-strong
\nArmy of Revelation is a Muslim army responding
\nTo the call for jihad.
\nPerhaps they’ll nuke us, and we’ll nuke them,
\nAnd Iraq will nuke us, and Britain will nuke Iraq,
\nAnd Indonesia will nuke Britain,
\nAnd the world will die.<\/p>\n

What is your will, Lord?
\nOur victory? Theirs? Peace? Cease-fire? Religious cleansing?
\nA new world order? Repentance? Love? Forgiveness? Sacrifice?
\nRetribution? National defense? Humanitarianism? Justice? Suffering?
\nSubmission?
\nIf I were one of the pilots, should I kill the soldier who is my target,
\nOr forgive and forget, as You do?
\nWhat if he tries to shoot me from the sky?
\nWould You return fire? Did You return the lashes You took,
\nOr the nails through the wrists and feet?
\nShould we be the doormat for the nations of the world
\nDue to our great love for them and never-ending, unconditional forgiveness?
\nWhat do You want, and how can we know?<\/p>\n

The Boat
\n8-1-02<\/strong><\/p>\n

We float together through the sea of years
\nOn the biggest boat the world has ever seen
\nAlone and together we sail
\nTo a port that we all think we know
\nBut not all of us know
\nThat the boat has only one stop
\nAnd it’s not where we’re planning to go
\nFor the boat has a leak
\nThere is no way to plug
\nAnd so very few know it but me
\nDo they want to know? No,
\nThey just want to enjoy
\nThe journey as long as it lasts
\nI hear how the music inside captivates them
\nI see how the liquor flows free at the bar
\nI look down as the lovers creep stealthily up
\nTo the top of the ship so that no one can see
\nAnd I stand here in silence
\nAnd watch from the deck
\nAs the dying ship cuts through the night
\nThen above, in the distance, the crow’s nest,
\nthe silence,
\nA warning bell sends out a plea
\nFor me not to just stand there and not rock the boat
\nThat is dying so silently under my feet
\nBut to go below deck where the lost ones are sleeping
\nAnd grab them and shake them
\nand tell them the truth–
\nThat this ship will not carry them
\nWhere the ads say
\nThat it is but a ferry
\nThat cannot arrive
\nAnd the only way off
\nIs to look up and pray
\nAnd I have to not care
\nThat I’m rocking the boat
\nThat is dying so silently under my feet
\nFor the jeers that they throw
\nWhile we’re all still afloat
\nAre nothing compared to the screams that I’ll hear
\nWhen the others are floating no more.<\/p>\n

9-11-01<\/strong><\/p>\n

they broke you
\nthey came from the sky
\npunched holes in your heart
\nand exploded there
\nstrong-fisted and wild-eyed
\ncame they
\nwith knives in their hands
\nand twisted faith burning bright
\ninside
\nyou fell
\nat your feet
\nin a heap of blood
\nand remains
\nand we stared
\nopen-mouthed, babbling, and crying
\nfrom the relative safety of the picture tube
\nas you screamed on the way down
\nand changed our world forever
\nyou fell, but your heart lives on
\nfor God will heal you
\nwe will hold you
\nand you will rise again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolphins Sept 15, 2003 Heeeeeeeere, dolphin dolphin dolphin “Dolphin encounter” Sounds intriguing Her eyes light up like a Christmas tree Oooh! Sure, we could do that You pick one, I pick one I’m gonna pet his head Let’s go snorkeling, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":67,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}