You can't have everything

They tell you, because they think they should,
that you can't have it all
That even if it were in your grasp,
you couldn't hold it, couldn't mold yourself
into someone worthy and capable enough
into a person it all made sense for

What they didn't know,
what they still don't know,
is that you can't have it all because you are too grand
you are too much beauty to fit into one person
you are the Universe's white light and the deep brown of the earth
and all the good things that move into you
quickly reach the top of your head
and spill out
flowing onto the ground
seeping across continents
making rivers of abundance
that cannot be

contained

What was your relationship like with your nieces' parent(s) growing up?

You can't blame the track
for not going
where the train wants to go

You can't blame the river
for not flowing
up and out to that town you loved, inland

The map may not be the territory,
but the territory isn't all there is, either
there are edges to things
places beyond,
where the train jumps its track
and the river jumps its bed
and I jump through my own memory,
through my own me,
and become the power that moves me,
become that unworn mountain trail,
that craggy, parched land that hasn't seen a river,
that destination that doesn't appear on any map,
and doesn't tell you where it is
and doesn't tell you where you are
that makes its own way

A train track
A deep riverbed
A map
A metaphor

None of these things will save me
None of these things will tell me where to go

I get to do that
for myself

train song

did you know it would be like this?
all thrum and rock
a heartbeat of clacking
a tolerable pitch of longing?
did you know when you sent for me
that I would feel the rolling of the miles
in my pelvis,
in the hollow between my ribs?

I am surprised by the eroticism of it
by the urge I have to lie on my belly on the floor
so I can feel the rhythm enter me
so the waves of motion can have contact with all of me
with every bit of my skin

we are rolling across the plains
and I am rolling nearer to you
we are moving through the mountains
and I am moving nearer to you

in my childhood, there were trains,
but not for us,
children of a mother who left town only
when the navy moved the family
we moved to europe and never set foot
outside andalucia
we moved to san diego and never saw hollywood

we are moving across the plains
and I am moving nearer to you
we are rolling through the mountains
and I am rolling nearer to you

now, in my adulthood, the trains are my friends
they move me through this city called home
they taught me tokyo and boston,
they wait to show me london and toronto
patient tourguides
punctual beasts of burden

but I couldn’t know before now
the utility of the heart
how these metal tubes were really blood vessels
that pump life and love into the world
and we rock
and the rails clack
and we rock
and the cars sway
and we rock
and a distant city grows closer
and my heart pounds in my throat
and I want to lie down on the floor and let the rhythm take me

we are rolling across the plains
and I am rolling nearer to you
we are moving through the mountains
and I am moving nearer to you

The font on this one will be weird, because I wanted to preserve the indentations:

Put me in a rocket ship and shoot me into space
Let me feel the zero gee and see my home planet from a distance 

I don't want to escape this world so much as to explore new ones
I am not eager to leave my family and my comfort, but to grab the adventure
that floats among the stars and in the spaces between them
If that costs me family and comfort, so be it

	I remember what it felt like to watch those men place their large, booted feet
	on the surface of the moon,  and I felt their spirit in my gut
	I became their apostle on earth
	and their missions became my religion

	If I worship anything, let it be the vastness and mystery,
	the chaos of swirling gases,
	the incomprehensible reality of space-time

Please, send me there.  Send me out where only telescopes have gone before,
make me an ambassador or an explorer, or let me clean the goddamn toilets,
but send me there

If not alive, then my ashes, the dust of me
Put me in a rocket ship and shoot me into space
Because that is where I long to be

I'm revisiting this thread, and you're next on the list, but lots has changed for you, so I wonder if you'd like to give me a new list of things you love, or if I shall use this list for inspiration.

:-) Now your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a comment with only things you love, and no things you don't. *hugs*

Oh, and dolphins. Their cheerful squeaking as they swim around and Do Stuff with their trainers. I was moved so much watching them at the Baltimore Aquarium that I leaked a tear or two.

The Cat who lives with the woman I rent a room from. Every time he and I make eye contact he Mrrownks? in such a perky expectant way, as if to say [Oh hai! It is can be skritchings tiem naow?]

The free museums here in DC and the Metro that gets me there.

i also love that i am uber-blessed with awesome friends. and that i didn't die when i tried so DAMN hard to succeed at that.

i'm not always happy. but.... i know i am blessed in so many ways.

* spending time with my love loves

oops.