Author: Wendy Kheiry

Wendy Kheiry

In a Snowy Field

Clicked my boots into snow shoes

Headed out across the white

One step floating sinking

Then the next

Layers of snow telling a story

Fleeting

Of blowing winds with dry small flakes

Atop a crust, robustly formed shelf

Over top an airy, cool, shadowed space

Towards the woods in bundled bliss

Sun sparkling on each flake

I tramped and trod until I stood

Alone amidst the water chilled

In the distance came a whomp

A settling tremor of the snow

So unprepared for such a sound

Reverberating all around

I shook and steadied

Watched and readied

For trouble my way to abound

The silence in the aftershock

In sparkling sunlight glowed

It’s how my heart stands solitary

Now that you have flown

In frozen beauty all alone

Another step away from home

trees covered with snow
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Wendy Kheiry

New Flavors of Sunlight

I taste the light on my face

My skin warm in the streaming rays

Shifting patterns of colors

Lavender and licorice

Strawberry sparkles

Mocha motes floating

The world shifts endless

Beaming new flavors of sunlight

Where the shadow crouched in ashes

Taste of dust on chapped lips

Parched peculiar

Partially petrified

Where words entombed upon this tongue

Desert dry

Still drowning

Finally found a well

Well watered

Buckets up and emptied

Primed and powered from the deep

The darkest, coolest

Stone lined cistern

There I drank experience and woe

There I drank regret and wisdom

All my senses opening

The world is streaming into me

All these brand new flavors

Drifting on the sunbeams

I soak them in each open pore

Grow taller in this tasteful light

Yesterday is far

Tomorrow can’t arrive

Larger in the moment

Then the blue perpetual sky

Close your eyes and see

Close your eyes and taste

This light

tree with brunch and green leaves during sunset
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Wendy Kheiry

Slow to Love, Slow to Let Go

There’s no apology to this love

Did you think this heart would run forever

Do you think the beat has stopped

I won’t say sorry for the way I give myself

Whole and complete

Or the roots growing deep

When I call them back one by one

From their spread throughout the world

Would I have shouted from the mountains

How my love for you was true

Would I have flown banners through the sky

Would I have written on the ocean waves

The way I feel for you

Reluctantly each strand and tendril

Unwind from how they grew

I am toppled now

By gentle breezes

Blown away by sighs

I’m drifting and I’m tumbling

Through a world with no disguise

Unanchored and unmoored

Releasing and let going

Every teardrop full of loving

I’ll get somewhere in some time

I’m not yet there

The shape of you still shapes me

In a way I really like

So I linger here a while

As the sunsets on this night

blue and white boat on body of water
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Wendy Kheiry

You Never Wandered So Far

You stayed put

In the lane they told you

Following the rules

While it seemed everyone else

Disregarded them

You downshifted

Braked

Slowed for everyone

Your dreams packed tightly in the trunk

Waiting for a rest stop

Or a home

To unpack them

One day, you hit the accelerator

Turned up the music

Rolled down the windows

And never looked back

You screeched and swerved

Into a new place

Unloaded everything but the

Necessary

Then unloaded some of that too

Here you are

Barefoot and brilliant

In the hot desert sun

Setting up a temporary tent

To shelter the dreams

Finally out of the dark

The well is there

Inside you

Drink deeply

My love

Shine in the darkness

Warm up the cold

Be a beacon of wisdom

Be a harbor for the hurting ones

Let your dreams be a shade, a shadow, and

A light

Let them dance through the sky

Let them swim through the sea

Behold

The world is yours

crop barefooted person walking on sandy beach
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Wendy Kheiry

Tail Ends

There were stories told about her hair

How dangling out the window curved

A brave lover dared to climb

Who woo’d her time and time again

Until she fled captivity

Did she bundle up her locks to flee

Did she sheer them off and hide the key

Did she stay the course with lover dear

Or did she veer away when the path was clear

Around the campfires late at night

They sing the tale of tail’s poor plight

How clumps and strands of golden locks

Were found within the Bear’s porridge

Wrapped around the table and every chair

Mounded on each size of cot

No footprints leaving through the mud

The theory is she’d had enough

Grew wings and to the skies she took

This is how the golden eagle came to be

When we reach the end of gilded tails

Look up and tell me what you see

golden eagle
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Wendy Kheiry

When You Were Sober

When you were sober

You eyes were bright like stars

Twinkling in my universe

Even on your downcast days

Being near you was better than not

When you were sober

Your joy infected me with hope

The sweet and caring way you spoke

Melted this icy heart

And then came a night

Of too much drink (says who?)

And angry voicings

And I ran

Became the deer in the forest

A multitude of fear dispersed

Pounding hooves away from danger

And the wolf inside me growled

And the pack awoke

And deer became lupine

There in the dark woods

Circling around to hunt the danger

Protecting the territory

The sacred

The smell of alcohol and anger

Is the smell of rot and death

So the wolf howls

For the days you were sober

Not drowned in drink

The wolf howls

For evenings under moonlit waters

For walks under a canopy of hope

The wolf is howling still

Wendy Kheiry

Plastic Molded

How dumb, I think

That this plastic form and lid

Should be what I have here

Here in front of me

A dilemma that should not be

Unanswered call

Unanswered text

And an empty piece of plastic

And its lid

I’ll donate it, I think

I’ll drop it by

No, I can’t do that

No more messages

2 is plenty

Too much probably

An avalanche

I’ll give it to someone else

I’ll keep it

I definitely should not be

Should not be

Should not be

Still thinking about these pieces

Of formed plastic

Molded to fit together

Perfectly

What a dumb poem, I think

About storage containers and fate

When people are not static

They are

Growing and changing

I have already changed

Become a little more myself

A little more healed

A bit more healthy

Of him there is no word

Not a glance back then

To the donation pile

Without regret

Where someone who needs

That can pick it up for cheap

I have too much anyway

Too much on my plate

Too much on my mind

Too much to do

And not enough time

I am not static or made of plastic

I am growing and changing

Healing and hoping

I can let go too

And be a little nicer to myself

Nice poem, I think

About plastic containers

And fate and love

And the little things that get

Left behind

Unnoticed

Until it’s time to tidy

man tied up using tape with head in carton box
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Wendy Kheiry

Halves

We split apart in the beginning

During the great expansion

Hearts breaking open

With each loss growing larger

With each good-bye softening

With each morning shining

Though cold dark times we flailed

The great failings

Huge mistakes

Mispoken words

Storms surrounded us

Blowing strong against us

Until we were reduced

Bare bones and sparkling spirits

Wrestling demons and decisions

There was that perfect hello

When all that had been awry

Clicked into place

The great turning of keys in locks

Chains falling unneeded to the ground

Now we fly through clear blue skies

Skimming and diving and circling

Choosing and creating a nest in a tall tree

Under the eaves

Under the daytime moon

We dream soft and pure

True and good

Of that peaceful lake within

Whose shore we never leave behind

Again

Wendy Kheiry

New Compositions

I’ve been working in the home studio, with two of the three tracks I’ll be releasing in February finished.

I composed Infection deep in the throws of the post-booster shot malaise. This is a modern lament of heartbreak and woe.

Unamended, Unmended was written with the idea that the problems in the world, in our lives, in ourselves, need to be addressed and repaired. In isolation, desolation, and feeling lost and alone, there’s no where to run away from the issues.

I love this title because it’s multiple plays on words

Darned can mean condemned or it can mean fixed/repaired (as in to darn socks that have holes in them.

Socks can be warm comfortable footwear or blows.

So within the title are 4 separate possible meanings.

Also, this track is a nice resolution to the other two.

Thank you for listening!

Wendy Kheiry

So Dramatic (A Rant) (A DRAMAtic Rant)

It’s people who say they don’t want drama who bring it to your doorstep, pour vodka on it, and drive the verbal barbs home before leaving dramatically, then wonder why you don’t want to talk to them.


Life is full of drama – accidents, celebrations, joy, sorrow. To say you don’t want drama is to reject life.


People say they don’t want drama then watch shows and movies full of it to get what they are rejecting in real life…a passionate, engaged life.


People create so much distance from their own feelings thinking it protects them from hurt, but it prevents healing also.


To heal it, you have to feel it.


And for those tempted to say, but I mean I don’t want unnecessary drama, all I can say is that it has been my experience, which is limited to, uh, my experience, that people who state “I don’t want drama” appear to mean that they don’t want your drama, usually because they are ready and willing to supply enough for two or more people.


Further studies may be needed to support this theory.


So, if the shoe fits, have a fit, it’s not unexpected.

Feel those feelings.

juice with sliced strawberry fruits
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