Rewind the Day

Musings by Tamara Lance

[rewindtheday]

Nightly Friend

My nightly friend 

Comes to the end of the bed

Speaking tongues and raging on

About green Jello piglets

Flying in the sky like biscuits

Dancing with the clouds of smoke

That paste their souls inside your lungs

They sway ever so slightly

With the hesitation of a mountain

Two feet tall

Wearing masks that bare a face

A face they never had

And when I unfold I bring the music

I take the notes and scratch out black

Cramming the chords inside my throat

So my soul can whisper deeper

[rewindtheday]

Waving Hands

Waving hands

Wind torn

Eighty degrees locked in

Fitting pieces along the highway

Red lights tick tick

Tires burn through the median

A crown of water overlooks

The end of days

Beginning again

We always fold the golden egg

Gritty Gypsies shaking their souls out

Sand clicking against the glass

Caught between the absence

And the presence

Waving hands

Wind torn

Riding the wave of the current

[rewindtheday]

Marmalade Fingers

With marmalade fingers and raining eyes

Disguised as fractured trees

Licking up poppy seeds from under the table

When we are able

We bear wings and things beneath

Torn and weathered like windows

White wash and foggy

Hands against the thick glass

On a dusty road to nowhere we have been

Thin like fingers that reach too far

Piecing together the torn 

Worn sensations of this place

This face that whispers noxious riddles

[rewindtheday]

Chasing Moon

Chasing moon in white stilettos

Cutting shapes in the eclipse of a stare

Unaware of that shifting gaze

Handheld haze

Escaping from the rifts of fingerprint maze

I breathe jasmine and mink in the ink of my paintbrush features

I taste absence vibrating against my dancing skin

My sin

The breaking features within

My heaven

The overgrown pathways that lead to the hue of a crazed sky

Black animals that slide down my throat like marmalade

I am chasing moon

Her white wings are chills driving down my back

I am Cadillac across the country

Aimless

Tires consuming moonbeams

Screams that turn to laughter

Smiles that stretch beyond your face

And in that place my eyes

A person I am meant to be

Wild and free

Chasing moon in white stilettos

[rewindtheday]

Blue Eyes

Little blue eyes locked down

The frozen crooked frown

A million miles long

I broke the song that brought me here

To cure the medic who graced me

Sincere apologies

And regret as thick as honey

They catch flies with open mouths

And open palms blessing the sky

I'd rather die

I'd rather be black backed

Ransacked

Forever curious in leaves of grey

Where they say she was a miracle

But I knew her caustic smile

All the while burning at the stake

I'd rather die

I'd rather lie in wait 

Pincushion souls seeping through

You, the martyr 

Push, pull, push me back again

In that Cheshire grin

When I thought I knew you when

Things were never better then

[rewindtheday]

Rumors

I heard rumors of severed cities

Floating secrets miles below

Snow that skipped her destination 

This was the glitter lost

From a high heel

And men who kneel to prey

Or lay for hours with cigarettes

And regrets for inhibitions lost

Tonight the skies are cesspools

My moon smells like gunpowder

A swoon in a darkness you can not see

They say all along it can not be

Crocodiles without tears eat you

When they can't live without the sun

Like the ones who tear through

Ship hulls with mulled wine

They still tiptoe on shallow breath

Afraid to meet my mother's death

Too late to say the words

I'll spend forever taking back

For this black mark

Ten inches thick and tall

Too small to be remembered

Too dark to ever forget

[rewindtheday]

Paper Skin

I remember your paper skin

The way the folds held words

More telling than your distant stare

Where you lost your crown

Down

Before the saints could reach it

I got lost in the curve 

Branches of faded reds and flesh

Fresh tears that dried before

Lied before

Before I know it I am falling

Again

I remember your paper skin

The news it held within

Telling me stories of regret

Before we met

My grey haired sweater friend

Lost in her selfish end

Again

I got lost in the rage

Waged a war inside the walls

Down the halls

Breathing in the thick plaster

Alabaster skin

Again

Now the saints are chasing me

Erasing me

Marking their way inside of me

Inside a shallow sink

Filled with hours of that day

Again

I remember your paper skin

My finger making craters in

The silence of that moment

When you were so still

When the will escaped you

When I lost you

Before I lost you

Again

[rewindtheday]

There Are Lines in My Eyes

There are lines in my eyes and

If I tried I could not trace them back

To the crack in my mirror 

3,000 miles long 

Where I long to walk sideways

And part ways

Breathing in the subways

Here the lights are locked away 

In my trap door

Still I want more

And I am settling the score with

Bourbon and ice

Victories and vice

Fabric flames to keep me warm

Next to knee high trees 

And memories

Broken by the golden sun

I am the one who resonates

Through thick poppy seeds

And the orange red mouth stains

Rains that last nine months long

Where I close my eyes and see

There are lines in my eyes and

If I tried I could not trace them back

So I open my eyes

And move on

[rewindtheday]

My Mind Swims

My mind swims with 

Thoughts of her 

Red lipstick 

Smeared on pale, 

Hollowed skin

Swallowed whole in a quiet room

One step too far into 

Where I lost her again

My mind blurs lines

And bends time

Still her hands recede in

She dances in the nerves of my eyes

And the holes of my skin

She is silence

In this quiet room

[rewindtheday]

The Elevator

I have left the elevator 

Steel stretch and grey

Where they say I turned over in my grave

Stiff eyes and a dry mouth

Pulling threads from my suit

And now 

I am onstage in the back seat

Beat from a night of white smiles

Baring gifts for my driver

Who makes me speak like I'm on display

In a way I can't reveal

When my words are between the lines

Too fine to see in the dark

And too narrow to be noticed

I rewind the day again

And it begins with light between

A dream that closed it's eyes

Despite the pull that drew it in

When the water tastes desperate

With wet lips between my fingers

And I linger on and on

Singing a song of displacement

To the words I meant to send 

In a messenger who knew me when

[rewindtheday]

Little Fingers

Little fingers against the glass

Sassafras between her teeth

Creeping, pulsing waves

Craving blue horizons

Devastated with 

Evergreen monsters

She is inside

And outside

Twisting within

Inside and outside

Breathing you in

Little fingers against the glass

Tracing smiles without her teeth

Hanging, dancing steps

Raving absent minuscule

Enamored with

Crescent waters

I am inside

And outside

Twisting within

Inside and outside

Taking you in 

[rewindtheday]

Two Tone

I rest on two tone

Bleak and scarred

Curled and frayed

I am pigment and shade

Expanding with the pulse of a pen

Erasing misguided dreams

Erasing time 

Below time lingers

A hazy black and white screen

Obscene memories 

Taking residence in a weary mind

[rewindtheday]

Felted Gold

Just inside this felted gold

He wore a feather cap

To lay me down to sleep

And drink its golden sap

I flew among with children

Far from the leaves of grass

A mystery in blue water

A jilted sassafras

Before the evening fell

His feather spun away

With fingers twisted old

His body did there lay

[rewindtheday]

Nonsensical Beings

Nonsensical beings 

Locked inside my paper cup

With gumdrop eyes and sugar lips

Hips cut into the curves of trees

They speak to me in black and white

On their journey across 

The echo off the plains

Names I do not understand

In places I do not belong

They are dancing wish

And tailored fish

A dish of polished gold

Spewing reverb and cherub smiles

Musing the misplaced glow 

Against their white palms

My little interrupted grace

The trace of a caustic smile

Huddled in ghost soft green

Cradled on the turn of a silver wind

Leading me home in silence