Episode 85 – Fool for Love

The vampire princess asked him to join her
and he saw the light no more.

He was gentle once, before his soul was taken,
penning piles of pitiful sonnets filled with longing.

The dark girl found his gentleness charming, 
but loved him even more when he was wicked.

So he was wicked.

Her perfect poet and provocateur 
made powerful by blood and by love.

A century later, she abandoned him, and the heart 
that ceased to beat the night she turned him

tore apart.

Only forbidden love began to mend 
his heart’s tattered secrets.  The Slayer.

A spirit so hot to the touch it burned him nightly.
She made him cry.  She made him rage.
He was covered in her, consumed by her,

concerned for her.

He was in love and she wanted him dead.
He wanted to breathe her in, but he had no breath.

Here begins his journey to recover the soul 
he lost so long ago.  To give birth again to the poet within.

Episode 84 – Family

Cast out by false fathers 
who profess love
but imprison creativity,

she finds herself in the company 
of those she despises,
trying to hide her true face,

what’s bad inside her
legend told by fathers who seek
to keep their women weak.

The only weak woman 
is the one 
who doesn’t know herself.

Oh, tell me a story 
of she who begins
unwanted and then is chosen.

Episode 81 – The Replacement

what if there was another me 
who did it better
got it right the first time around

made the drunken parents proud
got accepted to all the best schools
on someone else’s dime

what if he exuded brilliance
stomped on mediocrity
what if everyone admired him
depended on him

he would be so handsome
with the cleanest hair
the darkest eyes
the cleverest of comebacks

wait, no one does clever comebacks 
better than me
not even a better me

Episode 80 – Real Me

dawn is morning’s response 
to evening’s darkness

* * *

I am an only child,
little sister I have not.
But the kid
appeared one day,
writing journals,
making a nuisance,
altering my life.

What is a life
if not what’s remembered?
Or is what’s remembered
the whole of a life?
Can missing pieces
form a sister,

like God in those first days
molding a planet from the void?
Can a sister form
from shared memories –

skinned knees,
birthday cakes,
the forbidden borrowing 
of a favorite sweater?

If memories fail,
does the sister evaporate
like water on a summer sidewalk?
Or do lies fracture,
leaving a prism 
of colorful stories behind?

Episode 79 – Buffy vs. Dracula

Lying close,
he doesn’t satisfy.
Pursuit 
feeds her hunger.
She chases thrills,
then returns spent
to lie beside him.

A kindred
flows like mist
into her room
while she is sleeping,

drinking her in.

Her true nature 
is concealed
beneath crepe paper
and ribbons,
peeled back layers 
of strength 
and darkness.

His nature is 
a colorful calligraphy, 
flowing shallow 
and powerful
beneath the skin.

He offers eternity.

She is rooted in now,
her thirst quenched
by ancient memories.

She, as predator.
She, as seduction.
She, as hunger.

He leaves her
as he found her, 
wanting more.

Season 5

My mother 
is an ocean,
her words 
fringed with foam,
her wisdom
lapping 
at my feet.

She flows
when I flow.
We are drawn 
together 
into a pool of tides 
which guides us
out to sea.

My mother 
the ocean
has much to teach me
now that 
she is one with
the water.

Throwing her fears
to the wind,
she catches
a wave
to greet me.

Episode 78 – Restless

1.

Ancient strokes
brushed
on naked skin,

entangled,
a poem without,
my love within.

In costume,
the play begins
without me.

False friends follow,
dragging me back
to the shell of a life.

O girl in blue,
won’t you tell me 
what to do?

Paint me, naked,
hair behind one ear,
my Aphrodite.

2.

The journey leads me
back again,
swinging,
trying to get in. 
Too many people 
watching,
my father’s sin.

Ladies,
lovely like ice cream,
speak to me 
in foreign tongues,
send me off to war.
I can’t take it 
anymore.

Pulled apart by petals 
and stems,
too many corridors,
I can’t get in.
No place to lose my heart.
I’m broken, torn apart.

3.

Time 
is a carnival,
masking your face
with laughter,

cotton candy.
Find me
in a melody,
follow the lines.
No time
to remember 
before,

on hands and knees.
You alone,
time lost.
And I
not born yet,
even as I die.

4.

The earth
is a dreamer,
hiding behind walls,
hands plunged deep 
in dark desert mud,
its name 
unknown to anyone.

Memories are
isolated,
all twisted in family.
Speech, so ancient
there are no words.

Strength lies
in friendship,
in purpose.
The way
looms clear.

Then dawn 
arrives
and changes
everything.

Episode 77 – Primeval

In friendship
we speak as one,
speaking in an ancient tongue. 
Bullets melt off our skin.
Many try,
but can’t get in.
Sticks and stones
and playground bones
can’t touch the power 
of friendship.

Torn apart
by misunderstanding,
like birds we find 
our landing, in solidarity.
Magical reunion,
our hearts seek communion.
We meet equidistant,
form a fellowship
from our dissent.

Four legs supply 
a chair’s stability.
Four corners 
of the world every 
adventurer longs to see.
Four friends joined 
as one, win all battles 
under the sun.

She, the soul.
He, the wit,
She, the heart.
He, the intellect.

In friendship
we speak as one,
speaking in an ancient tongue. 
Bullets melt off our skin.
Many try,
but can’t get in.
Sticks and stones
and playground bones
can’t touch the power 
of friendship.