Tell Me How To Live

 
Tell me how to live,
I don’t know if I can do anymore
trying.
Red haired woman,
her voice has haunted me for so long.
Tell me how to give
words of meaning
to a soul I have lost
along my travels.

You always knew what you wanted
even when you feared it gone
and the sweet wind still hollers
to tell you how far you have come.
Oh but my boat it is empty
and I have run aground,
when I turn my head,
I have ghosts all around
beautiful, exquisite dreams
to cover me in dew
it’s a nice way to be buried
but I’d rather sit next to you.
 
You’re a stranger that I come to
but it’s right, for I’m a stranger
to myself.
I have never seen
the meaning of my smile
and tears are the sweet elixir
I drink when no one else is around.
Oh, but woman I have dreams too---
like the moccasin shoe
who remembers the pride
and when you screech your sweet holy
oh, what dies inside me
gives pause
and the child holds her breath
while the woman bears her claws.
 
Tell me how to live…
I don’t know
if I can do anymore
lying.
Tell me the type of woman I need to be
and how to get up,
dust off
and not look behind me.
 
© Coleen T. Houlihan