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