Raynette Eitel

Bury me with chocolates,
The kind I love so well.
Send dark and bitter candy wreaths
With leaves of caramel.
...

Memories are only
Tattoos on the brain,
Pain-etched, day by day,
Brush-stroked in joy.
...

Dreams often break
on their way across the night
with a terrible shredding sound as
quiet tears brand the place
...

There is something so comforting in the sound
of a bassoon singing strongly and deeply,
filling all the dark corners of a concert hall.
...

Go slowly.
Nibble it around the edges and sigh.
Lick the sugar off the top
then close your eyes, remembering
...

Poem Soup

Take one large scoop of words,
Blend in rhythm
...

They fling their flowers quickly out to sea.
Each petal is a prayer upon a wave,
Pressing against the tide deliberately.
They dare to watch, recalling all they gave
...

Tattoos

It is memories that tattoo tender skin,
pain that holds and pierces, ink etching
...

It is night and houses hold
a hallowed hour of simple sweetness,
subtle glow at the core,
comfort framed within each window.
...

In the forest where no one can hear,
the proverbial tree falls.
Sound waves like whispers waft
across the sky and vanish.
...

FOG HOLDS LIGHTS

Fog holds lights in soft hands stroking
the bay, floating across waters alive
...

In Taos, pueblos are striped with ladders
leading to blue doors like pieces of sky.

Inside, braves wrapped in blankets
...

After the Knife

…and for the rest of her life,
that unwanted child came to her in dreams
...

In the dream your image
is just around the bend,

your finger beckoning
...

Words land like birds
Upon my lined paper.
They flutter nervously,
Chirp without ceasing
...

The girl walked beneath stars showing
and moon glowing,
gathering night poems.
Then, as a gift sent from heaven,
...

The day the son of Ana Maria de Santos
was swept from her arms
by a hillside of mud
was the last time she saw colors.
...

Someone is eavesdropping on my heart.
Wires taped to my chest
reveal ocean sounds swishing
rhythmically and without ceasing.
...

Memories of other centuries
live within this instrument,
slipping along twisting streets
within ancient walled cities.
...

After the wedding, her parents
took bouquets to a nursing home
where patients clapped their hands,
remembering weddings and music and love.
...