Ivory

When the sun dried up the moss, and the sea washed over it,
a thick, pale, green milk pooled into your eyes,
and your olive, tan skin glows, and your wispy hair shines,
and you’re too pretty to be any older than a child,

but you didn’t stay a child long anyways, did you?
And when you grow up fast, do you grow much at all?
You are a cowering six feet tall!

But you’re too bold to remain so shy,Read More »

Rocking Chair

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.

Mirror, Mirror

There was a little girl I knew, with vibrant, dancing eyes;
A slender, graceful, little girl, with skin pulled taut that shined;
A careful, hopeful, spirited child with hair that flew behind;
A princess in a castle soon locked up, constrained, confined.
…Just trying to understand her land.

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall,
Are skin-thick walls too strong to fall?
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall,Read More »

Daddy

Sometimes I think the funniest thing about him is that I found him normal-

Getting pulled over, breaking down, breaking back in,
my bloody hand from climbing a fence to get to school and the mysterious sock
that we used to clot, and how that was god.

Rock walls tied to the truck while directing traffic on the interstate
so that ducks could pass- It was

SMOOTH AS BUTTER! BOWL OF SUGAR! WHOO-Read More »