Numbers 1 through 100

Sounds are a soft touch

   you might say that they

   leave the skin unfurrowed 

but the heart bears the

    wrinkles of their 

      passage

the harsh words

   bouncing off the 

            icy air

or the snap of a bullet

   have no power over

     the song of someone

         beautiful calling my

name, love

     better even than 

this blissful gift

      is the tiny little toy

propeller sound of 

    your cloudy 

baby heart,

       changing the 

doctor's office into a wizard's

     tent

            nor the needle of your

 cries 

      the day you opened

 your eyes,

     that red mouth 

                 making a pillar of 

     air that lifted my heart

     my little one carrying every

           egg of my

                  future

the blood of heroes

                   from my own forested veins

            into yours

You 

    as you made words, as you called for me

               raising arms to me,

     saying "up!"

                  I am only so big and strong

as you see me

     a hero only as you have led 

            me to be

  

      

elements

If there was a calculus
    that measures the weightless
elements of feel
  what would we
          see?

Is sadness the weight of
     a mote of dust,
       a lost penny,
        an engine block
          seized up with rust?

Is hope a lithium-weighted
   metal, angelic and
     brittle?
a speck of magic..

And then there is anger.
 Anger is not a noble gas
     some might say it's like sodium
reacting in unpleasant, unflinching ways
         most likely, metallic
     It's probably magnetic
attracting resentment,stubbornness,
         and jealousy
but it's necessary
     as a catalyst

                If hydrogen is the most plentiful
      of physical elements,
         here, anger can't be far behind
   
             using the isotopes of anger
 can fuel fires of change
    when with hope or love combined
that new molecules arrange
       stainless bravery
shiny integrity
         the lead of endurance
heavy and sweet to the taste

  In this idiotic forge
      things get broken
and polished at the
         same time

Like arsenic,
   carry yours with you in
the ironwork of your bones
    giving you shape and
            the armor of
    resistance

some day, some alchemist
     pulling the plug on science
             might
coax it into gold,
   but I doubt it
           would be half
              as valuable