I’m suddenly disturbed by the awareness that
everybody feels
sadness.

I’m suddenly feeling unsettled aboutRead More »

You don’t want to lie down, but it’s not time to run,
so you arch, throw yourself, scream, dive, and you hate me.
I bring you to myself and calm your body down.
You tire out then wake slightly, force some side-eye
like you trust me, and I slide you to your bed
as seamlessly as I can, deep-breathing in your ear
until you’re long-lost. You sleep long enough to little more
than recover, sit up in your bed and smile, start whining for me.
I say, “Come here,” and you wedge between my thighs,
contentedly rest your head on my leg, and you need me.
I pat your back, so you switch your face to my stomach.
You’ve forgiven me. Oh, you see your twin has the doll you like,
so you squeak, forget me. You go out to the world,
glance backwards at me, loving me, and carry on.

Be near,
close to me as I scrawl.Read More »

Love is a jerk,
a cruel-hearted beast

with an oily grin
and a cigarette.

Read More »

I couldn’t tell what Ma was cooking,
nor growing in her flower garden,

but sweet and spicy scents told me
that it was something good.

Neither do I know where Carrie
comes from with extraordinary

aromas exuding from her I would
bottle if I could.

Jern wanted to see the heart
I’d locked inside a drawer.

I fished in all my pockets
but couldn’t talk to Jern anymore.

You never croak, but you roar like a frog.
You bark an extended note, though you never howl.

You write her love songs, drunk on ale.
Buzzed on tea, I ink the sound down.

‘S’alright. My pen’s as neutered
as I always said it was.

And my love’s as strong as you strike
those chords

over, and over, and over again. Sway side to side.

I see the curves that your hips don’t make, man,Read More »

Ana-Bri,
Brawnasaur,
Brianasaurus rex

Loved me though
all the world
could see was my life’s mess.

Briana, the
open one
let me hold her soul,Read More »

Enamored folks in
the breeze stay silent. This sun
warms but cannot burn.

I look to the sky, seeing nitrogen, oxygen,
argon, water, and light.

“The biggest white mass,” you ask,
“What do you see it as?”

To me, it seems a pirate ship.
To you, it seems a house.

We have on our hands: a person,
another,
a difference, and each of these three
is pretty.

But you look to the sky, seeing rock, clay,Read More »