The Adventures Of Red Writing Hood

A dog after a nap is like my mind when I learn. Bouncing off the walls of my conscience. Yelping, ears perked, The world seems bigger when you open your eyes Wide enough to hold it. The world is the weight upon the shoulders of the sky. It's that hunchback of cloud, so grey That it meets the endless ocean As if the water evaporates into Misty abyss. My mind evaporates into The fog When I learn too much in one day. I go from four padding paws, Trying to touch every bit of knowledge I can, To a few worn-out feet. My ears droop, full to the brim of information. My nose tips down as I realize A deadline Is just another word For disappointment. Only the bait, Encouraging me to reach out and touch it before  The day gets a chance to say, "That's all I have time for, Do not try to add hours on Or you could be up until tomorrow Just trying," I am the dog who wakes up, Sees the world from the window, Collec...

I left my thoughts within these pages I left my mind in every word While this dear book of mind sees ages My wisdom will be heard A child’s young naivety A teen’s blossoming aspirations A new mother’s divine ability To raise the generations The years I opened, days I closed Brought me nearer to my dreams At last, so old and-- all alone I look back upon these things Coffee spilled-- page fifty-five On seven-- baby ripped the side A hundred-twenty stayed alive But the next one said goodbye Faded paper, dying words The unspoken story’s mine Every word remembered The ones between the lines But the words that were in print Were never read again The last page slowed down with my heart And the last words were: the end

Two trees hunker side by side, Their branches entangling. Complicated love. She is small, with a leafy skirt. Folds of fabric curl up on the ground. Her skirt is a shelter if you can get through the layers of green ribbons. There is a whole new world underneath. She takes risks and the others take advantages. It isn't the smartest way to hurt. A hand fondles her hair and her clothes, But she brushes it off as her body shivers.  Wet.  Cold.  Rain. She is beautiful, but she weeps. The other tree has a strong body and long, muscular arms But he is gentle.  The smallest find their homes in his trunks and on his branches. He is strong.  His arms enveloped her. Cover me in your scent Let me breathe in your beauty He is tall, but yet not tall enough, to shield her from the rain. Sometimes he must be cut to grow bigger and stronger again. Women learn from heartbreaks but men from breaking hearts.  This time he says: I will stay, I will grow....

As words are slipping out of reach I continue rearranging them Wondering if I should be changing them To make them make more sense Words are melting from my mind But the feeling is not left behind I part my lips as if to say... Oh how the words have run away Scampered off into the great unknown Off the often trodden road To the abyss of the unknown The words to express are like a star So beautiful they don't deserve a name No words can tell you who they are But the look in one's eyes when they fall upon you... you'll never be the same No words can describe the luxury of holding you in their gaze No words are strong enough No meaning deep enough I part my lips as if to say... Oh, how the words have run away You're beautiful today

Port Angeles Come where the trees are always green and the oceans always blue Where the crystalline nights form icicles on the rims of the houses Where many wander the streets in sadness A place of beauty, a people of tears Rich soil of diamonds and gold, scraped at with the fingernails of the hopeful Rich sky of stars to brighten the eyes, reached for by the dreamers but never caught Rich land of plenty with a history to be known, slipping from the grasps of the keepers Time is like the clocktower-- always ticking, never changing The streets are busy with the cars of the lucky, the feet of the lonely And the homes of the lost Come where the fish used to jump out of each towering wave Come where the dam rose up and where it fell Come where the grass is always greener The wind is always light Unlock the code of the port of angels To raise its people from their stoned stoned state So they can raise their children to raise this town from it...

The railway rattles beneath the earth, hidden from the sky My eyes are closed but I don't sleep. I hear them whizzing by I wish they’d stop at my place where I’m waiting to be found I think about their mission in the modern underground I know they’re here beneath me and will catch me if I fall They surely must be watching, I’m closed up in these walls And sold because I can’t fight back, and can’t because I’m small And in the cold, I cry and think they won’t come after all My wrists are raw with ropes.  A number is my name And I hear the train go chugging as it leaves the way it came Tears no longer reach my eyes, my heart is cold as stone I want to run away, but this is all I've known And so I wait forever while the train goes chugging by Freezing on the floor, I want to break my chains and fly Oh come to me sweet underground and soothe me when I cry Please come and save my soul before I drown in tears and die Operat...