memories

Boathouse to sea
Of corrugated tin
Sheltered winter's hell
Black waters roll
Blocking out light
The white caps
Bowing with grace
Curl through the door
My throat
Filling my skin
In a locked rectangle
This maze of bars
Rusted and set
Braiding with arms
Like reeds
Reaching for air
My fingers hit steel
Leaving them stained
Oxygen red
Wheeled legs
Roll with the surge
Mermaid weave
Through glassless panes
Unmissed pains
Silent breathless scream
Through bluing lips
Ocean roars back
With salted baptism
The oncoming tide
Steals everything
But memories

seasons

Never to write of Love again
Feeding its will to multiple
A disease spread across a field of Spring
The nefarious shadows in cold endless night
The tips of the earth on sloth-like rotation
Love is my Winter
Warmed only by a distant moon

Or
The thought of a distant moon

I spread my warm skin out to hide
Beneath the fleshed surface ripples left
The Autumn leaves sponge all the color away
The other side of Summer
Me
I fuck love with glass shards and razor blades
Bleeding some tasteless antivenom
That smells of time
Ticking
Half past loneliness

start again

Sky blended
Camouflage blue
My invisible eyes
Wept the canvas dry
Pink lemonade
Of newborn skin
Stretched
And stretched again
Over man made armor
That green insect crawl
Across bruised knuckles
His split tongue
Licking self into atrophy
While each hair
Of the brush
A tree
Under glossed finish
To start again

tick of my heart

My jaw
Unhinged
The top of my head
Flips off
Wings
Of gap-toothed bats
And stained moths
Caress stale air
Escaping from the dark
Bowl of my upturned skull
Tiny scurried legs
Spiders and roaches
Defy gravity
As they up and over
Leaving a trail
Of sooty footprints
Over illusioned purity
Of dead marbled flesh
Sin of words curse structure
Peeling away all the jointed
Connections
The last of my skin
Thuds to the floor
Laying in a crumpled circle
Around the sticks
That hold me up-
Right, skin
Like a plastic grocery bag
Emptied of its treasures
Leaving only the sullied
Record of commuted transaction
What's left
Segmented tick parts
Expand and contract
In tight controls
Sticky legs curl
Against a browned translucent body
My quivered heart
Beating still
Inside
Where hearts should be
A cyclical devouring
Of food and life and love
This
Left of me

goodbyes

My mind empties
When loud music
Scrapes the surface
Of the graying veins
In my head

I never did goodbyes very well

The end of my work day
Goodbye, see you tomorrow
What's the point
I'll just see them again
Tomorrow

Slipping away from parties
Disappearing from
Nondescript banal conversations
Goodbye, thanks for having me
Slinked on the wall like a flower

The uncoupling rattle
Of important relationships
Fittering away the last of words
Burning inside meanings
Of everything that came before

The death of flesh
And carried in a box
Never saying goodbye
Because it was all so sudden
Like time scatter to dust

The noise of their heartbeats
And love and gratitude
Always buries the shit
Deep in my own red muscles
What's left of them

Let me rot
Like old stored fruit
Leave me alone
Away from all tendered connections
So I never have to say goodbye

Moon Blooming

The moon
Blooming
Giant oak
Bare branches
Flowering
Its nightly sway
Balanced
Between his wooded
Fingers against
Indigo her
White petaled
Dandelion blow
Into stars
The moon
Bloomed
Pulling oceans
Taut
To gaze at
Herself
In monthly passing

slip of the tongue

Rushing to her head
Side to side
Blood
From iced veins
He cut
Inside her
A slip of the tongue
Razored edges
Separating flesh truths
Her open wound
Cried
Frozen blue rivulets
Stream and stop
And stop
On molded skin
She made herself
Her very cold
The only stoppage
To this
Undying sameness

sharks

Sensing fear
The toothy predator
Of love entanglement
Peeled skin of the past
Where other fingers
Crushed your heart
Just a little
Then a little more
I'm not them

still

I want to know what you think
Seven tracks laid
All running at the same time
But I still want to know
Still
My words are relentless
Relentlessly sculpting truth
Finding the forms that long
For understanding
I want to know you
Under covers of safe
Cushioned breathable air
Breathing your air
Still
Locomotion chisel chipped
I find a frustration of nothing
A library full of secrets
Red clay and charcoal
And draw my own conclusions

selection of unrelated 5 lined poems 5.0

too bad
boys
don't like kisses
that's all
I think about

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

his breath
hot
condensed on her neck
the twist
in her leg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

she drank
the sun
from glasses
made of cooled lava
love

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

fingers drag
crossing your skin
lips find lips
under the sunshine
of night

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

emotion compressed
the outside apathy
seals in wax
the future
I can't do

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

nomad
I've searched
a thousand years
under clouds
for you

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

your words
rubbed together
starting fire
deep within
this chilled heart

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the evolution
of my hands
life and love lines
knuckles bent smooth
slipping beneath your sheets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

chilled sea foam
summer warm in overcast tides
touching the sky
rippled motion
I send you my wake

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I
a sliver
between water and sky
holding the moon
before the sun

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

four paws
dug in sand
playing tug-o-war
with sea foam
waves

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this love
paper thin
and led by a string
I love you
kite

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

waxing poetic love
my thoughts
railing against my own truth
I sacrifice myself
to my potential

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my capitalist fingers
type in easily understood
syllables
all for sale
my quantifiable assumptions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

forgotten
the dusted wayside
rolls me up
only to repeat this salt flat
tomorrow, too

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

an exploration
in solitude
silent vows
in silence
I'm cloistered

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

starfish curve
texture of time
the sea
created me
to give you wishes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my eyes
move the length
of rosemary blades
tiny blue flowers
ignite

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want to make bees
from scratch
layering the yellows
and browns
all the way to stinger

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my last breath of air
said the lungfish
settling in mud
she released
and fell away

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

spinning eels
packed like wolves
hidden feast
surrounded by skin
fresh water

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and sometimes
sometimes I think
no, he's not into me
what am I hoping for
but then he speaks to me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and sometimes
sometimes I think
I'll fit in his hands
perfectly
before slipping through his fingers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and sometimes
sometimes all I want
I think
is for him to say, again
that he wants me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

maybe my heart will stop
beating silent
behind shatterproof walls
if only to stop
unrequited love

unforgetting

Unforgetting
The rotation of words
Hot wind
Brushing across the top
Of earth
And northern seas
Exchanged breath
And foreplay
Of skin never worn
Unforgetting
The inseparable links
And romantic discharge
It was perfect
Until it was not
(triangles never are)
Steamed into clouds
Every hidden thought,
Accepted madness
Were rolled waves
Over sand grains
Filtered to the center of earth
Of me
Then nothing
Unforgetting
Of untold shifts
The sobs and gasps
Of one person
For one person
Wet eyed reflection
The disappearance of words
Then nothing
Like wind
But never forgotten

selection of unrelated 5 lined poems 4.0

breathing
in this infertile
toxic wasteland
the sun rises
again

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I fall
with the speed
of dried pulp
only
to be let down

selection of unrelated 5 lined poems 3.0

I am here
unending form
like ballet
without the grace
and pink

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

never your mother
slack legged
in spread delight
the familial disease
every generation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

locked
in viral circulation
thin hollowed metal
extracts
all the red

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hours old
swift arson
her melted gray matter
dissolves
hopeless opinions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the days
of nightgowns
and
bunny slippers
never existed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I crumple up
love
and journal pages
for you
to the wastebasket

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

refusal
love
that never was
lingers
just past the blade

selection of unrelated 5 lined poems 2.0

space of a card
the fifty second
spoke spun
her green bike
mesmerizes the intersection

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

she foraged the forest floor
beneath the rug
sand swept shores
coconut crabs
bask in blue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

every first friday
to look at you
a perfect canvas
colors in your texture
my interactive art

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the tide pools
of her coastline
their ebb and flow
of salted waters
beneath his fingers

a selection of unreleted 5-lined poems

flex of breath
into her
she stripped him
of concrete
and stone

~~~~~~~~~~

her hair
fell across his shoulder
leaving echoes
of time
in his ear

~~~~~~~~~~

curdled milk
in stretched heat
rising steam
from cement bowls
leafed spoons never hold up

~~~~~~~~~~

dipping my toes
in the sun
endless ripples
circle out
meeting the green lights of sky

~~~~~~~~~~

her lips
pronounced
in shadows
of red
and guilt

~~~~~~~~~~

unfurled
fern leaves
left spring
with rain
the time in his hands

~~~~~~~~~~

these five lines
blueprint designed
from conception
to fruition
have nothing to do with you

~~~~~~~~~~

his photos
floor scattered
wooden sepia colors
blur
the edges

~~~~~~~~~~

we had drinks
off warm flesh
every lick of thirst
slips across
our wet skin

change

She shed her skin
Like tears
But it was
Never
That easy

ribbons

Striped stockings
Tied at the knee
Each ribbon
Undone
Like a gift at Christmas

bealtaine

Swallowing juniper's smoke
Devil divided by fire
We become pure
From greening pastures
To the roots of history

trying to wake up

Plucked out
From swampy peet
Taking deep breaths
Like a newborn
Smacked on the ass
So worldly and wise
I thought of me
So open and curious
I thought of me
But my foolish skin
Constricts muscles
In untidy messes
Feet stuck
In untimely murk
¤
My rounded tongue
Wrap old words
In unfamiliarity
Syllabic gifts
To the humiliation
Of not living up to...
Or just not living
So stupid and repulsive
I think of me
So brilliant and creative
I think of me
Still trying to decide
I burn in my own bubble
Never noticing
The tremendous white moths
Fanning any passion's flames

greased

Men
They think they can fly
Spilled blood
Of contrived histories
Fill polished silver
My last breath
Is air in bubbles
Thoughts on paper
Never realizing purity
In every soul raped
Under that same moon
That put us here
Tethered in escapeless rotation
The endless joke
On me
In clenched throats
And between reddened teeth
Life swallows
One at a time
Beads and stones
Pass hand to greased hand
Like gods