I was once asked what I saw when looking at our California Desert. 

Timeless beauty, I responded.

What is it that you find beautiful? I was asked.

I replied; The Desert doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t.

Like a dream of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, the desert has many shades of browns, just as her hair does, soft and blowing in the wind, just as the desert grass bows to the wind. 

Her skin the color of the Desert sand, tan, seemingly going on forever, over dunes and hills, ever changing yet always the same.

Every so often, when just the right amount of rain has fallen on that sand, something happens to the desert.  It seems to come alive, colors blowing in the air as far as the eye can see.  Colors you didn’t even know existed, yet here they are in front of you.

It literally explodes with beauty unparalleled by anything you have ever witnessed.

Then, as fast as it appeared, it is gone.    

It leaves you thrilled, wondering when it will return, waiting impatiently.

 

This, my love, is what I see while loving you.

You are that dream woman.

You are my timeless beauty.

I didn’t even know you existed, yet here you are in front of me.

I impatiently await your return to my arms.

 

Copyright@2005 M.J. Mitchell

One slap

 

With one slap the breath of life came screaming from your lungs,

echoed in many lands, and in so many tongues.

Crowded now, or so it seems, on a planet growing smaller.

Billions cowering in the night, and by day we seek the dollar.

We want it now, we want it all, and for this many wars are fought.

I’ll take your life or you’ll take mine, without a second thought.

 

With one slap, the bullet strikes its target.

And the breath of life leaves as it came,

 

screaming!

                                                The Abyss

 

On the horizon looms a darkness.

Through disrespect you caused this.

You pushed, and then I fell,

into this abyss leading straight to hell.

Eyes wide open, struck with fear.

Someone is screaming, it’s my voice I hear.

As I fall into this abyss, my personal hell,

 comes this stench, it’s death that I smell.

Now near death, I no longer need eyes.

When I was in love, they saw only lies.

The truth that they saw was that of your sin,

as you hurt me over and over again.

One final beat I feel in my breast,

from my heart that you have torn from my chest.

I’ll always remember how you did it so well,

condemning me as you did to my own personal hell.

 

 

copyright2003 M.J. Mitchell

                                         Once again

 

Once again I journey into the unknown.

Placing my hopes, fears, my life itself,

into another’s hands.

Into the hands that thoughtlessly discarded me,

now realizing the mistake.

 

If there were no peace, how would one know war?

To know happiness, one must also have been sad.

If there were no bad, how would one know good?

Having never felt cold, what would hot mean?

 

It is said there is a fine line between pleasure and pain.

Does it not follow that to know love,

one must also know hate?

 

Once again I journey into the unknown realm of love.

For if I do not, how will I know?

 

                                                           Copyright M.J. Mitchell 2002

It has no name

 

It has no name, but you know what it is.

Having been there, I am not anxious to return.

There is no hope or future there.

Only today, yesterday, agony, and despair are allowed to live there.

 

It is an ending place.

There is no tomorrow.

It is where Evil listens with glee to the death rattle of Love.

It is where Marriages go to die.

 

I am blinded by the evil around me.

Feeding on my agony,

  it watches the blood of love slowly seep,

taking hope and promise with it.

 

Time stands still here in this ending place.

“If” has no meaning.

Broken promises line the walls like framed pictures,

leaving only spaces for future broken vows.

Tomorrow lays at my feet in shattered ruin.

Today and I writhe in pain.

Yesterday brings forth images, and I recall,

“Till death us do part”

 

Then I scream!

 

                                                                           Copyright 2002 M.J. Mitchell

An evil

 

 

 

An evil welled up inside you

Then settled in your mind

And slowly it did change you

You became moody and un-kind.

It grew and grew inside you

Taking your love for me away.

And now love has denied me

and I need to walk away

For 3 years I stayed and loved you

Trying to chase that evil away.

But you lied to those around you

and at my feet your guilt now lay

So take a look around you

Remember well, this, my last day

And the evil that is inside you,

And you, will rue this day

 

 

Copyright2003MJMItchell

It seems so long ago.

 

My Father was diagnosed as having Cancer. Small cell, incurable, terminal.

“Enjoy what life I have left” he said.

He had 3 good years before the downhill slide.

 

What does this have to do with Christmas you may ask?

 

Through family, a phone call told me that it was time to head North to Auburn, California to see my Dad as his time was drawing near. I booked a flight to Sacramento and left as soon as I could.

One can imagine my mood as the plane cut through the air high above California. No smiles for anyone from me. This was the proverbial “bummer trip” that I wished I did not have to take.

 

My brother Paul and my sister Claudia were to pick me up at the airport. After exiting the plane I was walking through the terminal with a sour look on my face, and surely not in a hurry to get anywhere, especially the hospital. 

 

Walking in front of me was a woman with a little girl on her shoulder looking backwards at me. Out of nowhere this little girls eyes light up like a Christmas tree and out of her mouth comes one word, Santa!

Now, I've got long silver white hair and a full beard and mustache, and I'm not as fat as Santa Claus is always depicted, but I was instantly caught up in this little girl’s vision of Santa Claus. 

Her mother stopped dead in her tracks and spun to see what her daughter was talking about. Just as she started to say that she was sorry for her daughters outburst, and with a finger to my lips I said, "Shhhh!  I'm on vacation!" With that, the little girl broke out into a great big smile and shook her head yes. Her mother only smiled and continued to walk away with her little girl looking back at me with the biggest smile I had ever seen.

 

I do not know how or why it happened, but my mood and my life were instantly changed by that little girl.

I now had it in my mind that I was not going to show Dad anything but a smiling face.

 

Upon arrival at the Hospital, I found myself in need of the facilities. As I was washing up and combing my hair, I thought of a way to lighten up this situation. I took ten foot of toilet paper and stuffed one end of it in the back of my pants. 

I now had a follower, a tail. 

Out the door I went much to my brother Paul and sister Claudia’s astonishment. In her usual manner she piped up with; "Maarrrk, do you know what you have following you?" "Yep, that I do" I quipped. I got an "O Jeez" from my brother, then they both refused to walk anywhere near me as I continued through the hallways. 

 

Down this hall and then another, I was following the arrows and stripes painted on the walls, headed for the Intensive Care Ward. Along the way, all you could hear was laughter.  People were pointing and laughing at me as I continued on my way as if there were nothing wrong with this world. 

 

A quick glance over my shoulder showed Paul and Claudia with looks of disgust (and a hint of a smile) on each of their faces, following about 40 feet behind me.

Around the final corner and entering the Intensive Care Ward, I was walking past the Nurses Station much to their amusement as they were busting a gut laughing at me. Giving them my name they pointed a finger at Dad’s room and off I went, howls of laughter following me.

 

I entered Dad's room to see him sitting up in bed trying to figure out what all the commotion was. He took one look at me standing in the doorway and said; "I should have known it was you!" 

 

So, with a big smile on both of our faces I was able to walk to my Dad's side and give him a big hug and a kiss, and tell him how much I loved him.

 

Later, and on death's door, Dad called Mom to his side, whereupon he asked her for a kiss. 

 

He then said to Mom, “See you in Paradise Honey” and away he went.

 

Mom and Dad are both gone now, but the memories live on.

 

I wish there were a way to thank that little girl for what she gave me that day. Without her help I would have been in tears and not much good to my Dad when he needed some support.

 

Because of her, Christmas has since taken on a new meaning for me, and one that I try to keep alive throughout the year.

 

“Peace on Earth, and good will to all mankind”

 

Merry Christmas to all of my Family and Friends, wherever you may be, I have my memories of you, and that is the greatest gift I could ever hope to receive!

Time has run amuck

 

Like a Moth to a flame

I too, am drawn by the light

Like a falling star, trapped by gravity

Closer,  now faster, and closer yet

A year seems as a month

A month  as a week

A week as a day

And the days are but a blur

Time has run amuck

I am drawn by an unknown force

To an unknown  place

My time nearly done

As I hurry to the light

Like a moth to a flame

 

M.J. Mitchell 2006