A vagrant teardrop Slinks along the length of her arm Reflecting the red ribbons And pony-tailed desires Of a rainbow-minded apple seed. Roots embedded in jello Like fingers Taunting the laws of possibility Trickle through the tapestry Of hardly recognizable silhouettes That the rainclouds spread like butter Over terra cotta mountain pies. Time bites down And sharpens its claws on the bark of the forest. Winds complain And their voices crescendo in the rain But the liquid spills through the cracks, Finds the Soul in Satan And fills the spaces Between emptiness and confusion Like a sweet lotion. Heavenbeams from the sun Slice the storm in half And dry the sullen soggy surface To a soft and supple paradise. Yellow blossoms whisper her the secrets Of the vines and of the trees And of how to realize That living's just a resting place Where all things come to breathe. Then the jealous little juggernauts Poke their olive green thorns Up through the dainty spectrum of innocence And pain is swallowed through a slender throat Like a bowling ball in tights Crashing over delicate masterpieces of purity, Obliterating everything. Silent lullabies caress her mind As her branches touch the ground Cold like broken promises, Lost To an unforgiven wasteland of wintry slush. Her fingertips beg for the fuel of youth And dig Through the stony browns of death that surround her Searching forever for something to cling to Because she's starving for a taste Of something superior to call sovereign. So when the pupil of her midnight eye Goes blank And sheds its final thought It will travel down the road of shadows and suffering Until it splashes into her palm Into the tiny black seed That she's held since she was born. And it will shudder.