All Gone From Life

I don't think like a flower anymore
I know I can't live past a moment
because they've taken me
out from my roots
And I use to drink and eat from the soil
and now I return to it
all gone from life

I know I can't come back.
I can't come back like they promise in some sights
or some storybooks...
once I've lost all power
my veins become naught
and I start to dwindle painlessly
I do

I don't think like a flower anymore
well, like I did when I was young
I didn't think that life depended
on earth's riches
That I stood without help... without.
I hadn't realized that a human
would come, cut me out one day
And I had to depend on his kindness instead 
 
I was so used to the sun returning to face me
to warm me, to love me

I don't think like a flower anymore
because I have seen myself
fall and without strength 
I fall to never to stand tall again, to come back
But I disappear into the soil like
My mother and her sisters have
I wish I'd known that my time here was timed

I have grown a little too late
And a little too late I'm learned.

I Am Not Guilty

I captured the bird with my eyes closed
It was white and now
I have to face the doubt that I have
Was he the one to pay for all my sins?
Am I not guilty or do I pretend-
the day is now
that I begin to feel a drop of rain on my forehead
I feel so dry inside
I have been caring the wrong way
Making him breathless and
making him squirm
when all I needed was to quietly suffer
I needed to put my hands on my mouth instead?
No!
I needed to tell Him that I too am deserving
That I too am white like he

I captured the bird with my black hands
My hands had all but been my friend
And I'm not guilty still
I am not brought upon the white gleaming
light to say: I am guilty.

I held the bird tightly
with all my need
because I too am white just
deeper inside than you
I too am white although my skin is black

You captured me and then you let me go
You captured me
you knew that with my broken legs
I couldn't fly
you left my pieces lying there
And without shame you say:
I am not guilty
But you are too.

I Turned To Dust

I went up the mountain
in order to see clearly
and while I was there
There you were
jumping over lower hills...
I was watching you
Waiting for that whisper
That lulled me to sleep some years ago

I had climbed to reach you
nakedly in view
but you were too busy riding on
the tail of the wind to feel my gaze
Or to see that I have been with you
and not quite away from you
Reaching toward you and hoping
you'd want to come and stand by me...

So I stood there alone, almost paralyzed
by the cold and wind that blew
some 20 years off me
And I oh child, I am,
dressed with golden leaves
Yes, quite aware of my weakness

I saw you riding the tail of it
Smiling about the very thing
I couldn't understand, and I cried
Because something inside me said
"Oh child, you can't go back down
You are way to young to fly among the rest"
and the wind just stopped and you kept riding it
How can it be?
and I cried and cried till the rain
and I became the incarnation of time...
And I turned to dust
right then.