I didn’t post any poems from last month so this is technically poems from the past seven-ish weeks.
charybdis
When I can’t sleep
I lay on my head
down next to yours
and listen to the ocean
inside you (inside me)
so deep it rocks the shore
so sure it rocks my soul
waves of air crashing
against your lips (my lips)
So loud I could drown.
(Why don’t I just drown?)
(unclaimed)
I am the red hot fire of debts unpaid
Striking on through wave after wave
Of unworthy rewards,
Dessert turn desert
Not having having everything
Striving after all I’m owed
Trading my sweetness for
The sting of raw skin
And still I do not strike back
Even if you crawl, on fire, in snow, through the years
You will have never conquered it
No abundance never ending
When there is no first spring to be had.
It is a joke to think it could be a single
Give and take
As if the wheel of the world would spin
one foot to another
and always leads you home
To die with your song eternal
Caught between the teeth
Of enemies and grandchildren
they sing your song eternal
Merits counted with no place to cash
Vulnerable.
Whisper sing to me
in your shaky alto
Off key warble falling
into choked off sobs
laying your head in my lap
as you laid your body over my body
wound fingers around my wrists
holding on for dear life
Making me a lifeboat
in an endless ocean of
your sadness
These Candies
I like these candies
Their soft sugar dancing —
dissolving on my tongue
The flavor of far off skies
fruits from exotic locales
And the memories of a woman
Yelling down at me from a balcony
Connection
Maybe you just need to
spend more time around
friends
she’s holding my hand and I’m an island
drifting out to sea
I am holding in my hand
something sharp
running a razor down my side
all that blood meets up with air
pooling all together
like we were always connected.
I lavish my lover
I lavish my lover in mirrors instead of furs
Pretty. Beautiful. Darling.
I pull sugar from my lips
Drizzle honey from on high
Baby. Sweetheart. Cutey.
He towers above me
and the angle of his ruler straight hips
the slant of his wide shoulder
keeps him from stooping to my level
So the words slide off his back
Adventureland
you always liked it
the dark decent
chalky white tunnel through the wilderness
you come out the other side
it’s all lights
christmas come early
distorted music from the bandstand
you take my hand
we settle into death devices
until all i feel is your hand in mine
track rumbling under us
darkness flows over your face
and you whisper to me
all your secrets.