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Category: Free Verse

Fingertips and Cupcakes

Published by Lee Under the Cedar Trees on December 6, 2024

Press thoughts into me like fingertips
But explain to me what they mean

Shove feelings down my throat like cupcakes
But tell me what the flavours are 

Invite me to the dinner table like I’m one of you 
But show me how you live every single day
With the same humanoid shape
With the same language
With the same homeland as I
With your body comprised of the same proteins as I
With the same glucose in your veins as I 

I’ll pay voracious attention this time, I swear
I’ll try really hard to learn
So that one day I may be able
To finally assume the shape of your thoughts
And learn to play your part

December 6, 2024

Seeking Decisions Undone // Alternate Endings

Published by Lee Under the Cedar Trees on December 5, 2024

She’s dizzy, weak
She’s heavily wounded
Yet miraculously she stands
On shaking legs
Spitting bitter iron
Coughing, dazed, stumbling
With broken bones
Into arms of those who came
To her when she needed them most

The wet sand that cushioned her
When she fell so far
The sun that hid from her
In the cobblestone square
The moon that couldn’t find her
Sitting at her warm table
The snow that didn’t touch her
But saw her through that window
And the friend who could read her
Who could hear and see right through her
May be the only ones who really 
Know her stories

Maybe that’s enough

After all, as this new day ends
She’s still standing

December 5, 2024
12:15 a.m.

Related

A Daydream Aggressive
A Daydream Decisive
A Daydream Gently Ending

Feedback Loops

Published by Lee Under the Cedar Trees on December 3, 2024

Today I reflect on connections
Giving love, receiving love
So many feedback loops
All precious, all powerful
All so very necessary 

Like all things invaluable
Each with a secret expiry
Some brutal painful day
So hold them tight, cherishing
Until their inevitable dissolution 

November 30,  December 3 2024

Honeycomb, Briefly

Published by Lee Under the Cedar Trees on December 1, 2024

I think I tasted it again today
That rare experience, precious
Honey from a hive 
Communal joy 
Connected on all edges of my honeycomb cell
Now I go out to replenish, alone again
Seeking more solitary nectar

How I hope to taste this honey again soon

🐝 🍯

XX?

Published by Lee Under the Cedar Trees on November 26, 2024

I’m not much of a woman
Maybe I’m half of one
My body has the shape
We’ve largely agreed to call female
My chromosomes are oblique crosses
I’m seeing double

Am I missing half of my mind?

I play life defensively
Guarding what I must within reason
I take inside when I choose to
I bleed
But it feels like I missed something
When they were handing out
Club membership cards

Where’s the rest of me?

I check the F box on forms
With confidence
But at the same time
I feel like I’m sitting outside of it
Looking in

November 26, 2024

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